PAW, 

wise. 


UNDER  THE 
INTERNATIONAL  FLAG 

The  Work  of  the  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions 
of  the  Interior  in  Its  Fiftieth  Year 

1868-  1918 

By  MRS.  L.  O.  LEE 


19  South  La  Salle  Street,  Room  1315,  Chicago 


UNDER  THE  INTERNATIONAL  FLAG 

The  Work  of  the  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions 
of  the  Interior  in  its  Fiftieth  Year 
1868-1918 


Mrs.  L.  O.  Lee. 

During  its  fifty  years  of  life  the  Woman’s  Board  of  Mis¬ 
sions  of  the  Interior  has  supported  for  longer  or  shorter 
periods  no  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  women  on  the  mis¬ 
sion  fields.  Seventy-nine  of  these  women  have  served  in 
China,  sixty-one  in  Turkey,  forty-four  in  Japan,  nineteen  in 
India,  seventeen  in  Africa,  eight  in  the  Balkan  States,  six  in 
Mexico,  six  in  Micronesia,  two  in  Ceylon,  one  in  Persia  and 
seven  were  sent  for  work  among  the  Dakota  Indians. 

Between  the  years  1880  and 
1882  the  work  for  the  Indians 
was  transferred  to  the  Amer¬ 
ican  Missionary  Association. 
The  work  in  Persia  was  as¬ 
sumed  by  the  Presbyterian 
Board  when  in  1872  the  Pres¬ 
byterians  withdrew  from  the 
American  Board  and  with 
them  went  Miss  Jennie  Dean, 
one  of  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  mis¬ 
sionaries  adopted  during  its 
first  year. 

The  missionary  who  has 
given  the  longest  period  of 
service  was  Mrs.  Josephine  L. 
Coffing,  who  served  forty-nine 
consecutive  years  in  the  Cen¬ 
tral  Turkey  Mission.  Miss 
Mary  H.  Porter's  years  in 
China  numbered  forty-one  but 
she  has  to  her  credit  full  fifty  years  of  missionary  service  for 
whether  in  China  or  America  she  will  always  be  a  missionary. 
Miss  Martha  Barrows  has  been  forty-two  years  in  Japan  and  is 
still  active. 


Miss  Mary  H.  Porter  in  1868 
First  Missionary  of  the  W.  B  M.  I. 


1 


During  the  early  years  it  was  customary  for  the  appeal 
for  workers  needed  to  be  made  to  all  three  Woman's  Boards 
and  for  the  one  which  could  find  or  was  financially  able  to 
support  the  new  missionary  to  send  her  to  the  field.  Gradu¬ 
ally,  however,  the  policy  was  adopted  of  making  each  Wom¬ 
an’s  Board  responsible  for  definite  institutions,  for  filling  the 
vacancies  occurring  in  these  and  for  developing  the  work  for 
women  and  children  in  certain  mission  stations.  Thus  it  is 
that  at  the  close  of  fifty  years  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  has  mission¬ 
aries  in  fewer  fields  than  in  its  first  decade,  but  in  those  places 
it  has  well  established  schools,  hospitals  and  evangelistic 
work  instead  of  the  scattered  and  weaker  beacon  lights  of  the 
earlier  years. 

Through  the  first  four  decades  the  Turkey  missions  re¬ 
ceived  much  the  largest  share  of  the  appointees  though  by 
1900  China  and  Japan  were  close  seconds.  Of  the  sixty-eight 
missionaries  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  has  sent  to  the  field  since  1909, 
thirty-eight  have  gone  to  China,  eleven  to  Japan  and  only 
nine  to  Turkey.  No  doubt  the  years  immediately  following 
the  close  of  the  world  war  will  again  see  an  influx  of  workers 
into  the  field  hitherto  embraced  by  the  Turkish  Empire,  as 
the  W.  B.  M.  I.  has  already  accepted  responsibility  for  twenty- 
live  of  the  “Turkey  Band”  of  175  new  recruits  the  American 
Board  and  the  three  Woman’s  Boards  are  undertaking  to  place 
on  the  field  as  soon  as  the  war  closes. 

In  all  fields  the  principle  prevails  of  placing  responsi¬ 
bility  upon  native  workers  and  developing  self-support  as 
rapidly  as  possible.  In  the  early  years  it  was  necessary  to 
persuade  parents  to  allow  their  daughters  to  attend  mission 
schools  and  such  arguments  as  relief  from  their  support  were 
offered  as  an  inducement  but  that  is  long  since  a  thing  of 
the  past  and  the  call  everywhere  is  for  enlarged  buildings  and 
equipment  sufficient  to  accommodate  those  eager  and  waiting 
to  come,  even  though  fees  charged  are  large  in  proportion  to 
the  average  income  of  the  constituency  of  the  institutions. 

Everywhere  missionaries  and  mission  institutions  are 
highly  respected  by  government  officials  who  often  take  great 
pride  in  showing  our  school  or  hospital  as  one  of  the  notable 
attractions  of  their  city.  Many  instances  of  friendly  regard 
shown  missionaries  in  Turkey  during  the  present  war  witness 
to  the  kindly  feeling  of  officials  even  of  a  hostile  government. 

It  is  but  natural  that  missionary  work  should  reflect  with 

2 


a  fair  degree  of  accuracy  the  thinking  of  the  church  at  home 
during  the  half  century.  In  accordance  with  the  spirit  of  the 
church  as  a  whole,  the  earlier  missionary  effort  centered 
around  the  idea  of  rescuing  as  brands  from  the  burning*  a 
few  of  the  millions  who  were  each  day  perishing  without 
Christ,  but  even  as  the  Church  Universal  is  learning  in  these 
latter  years  that  its  mission  in  the  world  is  not  to  save  a  few 
out  of  the  world  but  so  to  transform  the  springs  of  life  and 
action  that  communities  and  nations  shall  be  transformed 
into  accord  with  the  teachings  of  Christ,  so  has  the  mission¬ 
ary’s  conception  of  his  task  and  the  means  of  its  accomplish¬ 
ment  broadened  to  include  many  forms  of  industrial  and  phil¬ 
anthropic  work.  Thus  it  has  come  about  that  in  almost  every 
station  some  of  the  missionary  women  are  today  giving  them¬ 
selves  to  the  task  of  making  industrial  and  social  conditions 
more  tolerable  for  the  native  women.  Needle  work,  cooking 
and  teaching  the  principles  of  hygiene  and  sanitation  form  a 
part  of  the  curriculum  of  every  school  and  the  opening  of 
orphanages  and  vocational  training  has  followed  close  upon 
the  heels  of  such  great  disasters  as  Armenian  massacres, 
famine  in  India  or  last  year’s  floods  in  China. 

No  doubt  it  is  largely  these  by-products  of  missions 
which,  together  with  the  work  of  the  medical  missionary,  have 
so  commended  the  work  of  missions  to  the  Rockefeller  Foun¬ 
dation,  to  the  British  Government  in  India,  and  to  several 
lesser  organizations  as  to  win  very  considerable  grants  of 
money  each  year  to  be  administered  by  the  missionaries. 

Through  all  the  changes  of  the  fifty  years  one  guiding 
star  has  ever  shown  more  and  more  clearly  before  the  Wom¬ 
an’s  Board,  viz.  the  strategic  importance  of  the  home  in  the 
process  of  making  the  world  Christian. 

So  long  as  three-fourths  of  the  women  of  the  world  are 
secluded  in  zenana  or  harem  or  bound  by  the  superstition 
and  dread  customs  of  paganism,  so  long  as'  three-fourths  of 
the  children  born  into  the  world  must  receive  their  training 
by  just  these  women,  so  long  is  the  universal  task  of  making 
the  world  safe  impossible.  In  our  work  for  women  and  chil¬ 
dren  we  are  at  the  strategic  center  of  the  whole  great  under¬ 
taking.  The  degree  of  success  already  attained  and  the  size  of 
the  task  still  waiting  can  perhaps  be  best  judged,  not  by  an 
accumulation  of  statistics,  but  rather  by  a  brief  survey  of 
the  work  of  the  Board  as  it  is  in  this  its  fiftieth  year. 

3 


JAPAN 

KOBE — College — Miss  Charlotte  B.  DeForest,  Miss  Sarah  M.  Field,  Miss 
Edith  E.  Husted,  Miss  Susan  A.  Searle,  Miss  Mary  E.  Stowe, 
Miss  Grace  H.  Stowe,  Miss  Nettie  L.  Rupert,  Miss  Ida  W.  Har¬ 
rison. 

Evangelistic  School — Miss  Martha  J.  Barrows,  Miss  Gertrude  Cozad, 
Mrs.  Jane  H.  Stanford. 

Kindergarten  and  Training  School — Miss  Annie  L.  Howe,  Miss  Kather¬ 
ine  F.  Fanning. 

MATSUYAMA- — Miss  H.  Frances  Parmelee. 

OKAYAMA— -Miss  Mary  E.  Wainwright.* 

To  some  Japan  as  a  mission  field  is  an  anomaly.  Be¬ 
cause  her  government  maintains  a  high  and  honorable  stand¬ 
ard  in  international  relations  we  are  apt  to  judge  the  social 
and  ethical  standards  of  the  rank  and  file  of  her  people  by 
our  own  Christian  ideals,  forgetting  that  for  1,500  years  her 
religious  and  educational  roots  have  been  grounded  in  Con¬ 
fucianism  and  Buddhism.  Christianity  is  now  mightily  shap¬ 
ing  the  views  of  the  people,  and  Christian  women — wives  and 
mothers  in  the  homes — are  most  imperatively  needed. 

The  W.  B.  M.  I.  is  striving  to  raise  up  Christian  leaders 
for  Japan’s  womanhood  through  three  educational  institu¬ 
tions  in  the  city  of  Kobe  and  through  social  work  in  Matsu¬ 
yama  and  Okayama.  Kobe  has  a  population  of  over  550,000 
and  is  said  to  be  growing  more  rapidly  than  any  other  city 
in  the  Empire.  It  is  Japan’s  greatest  commercial  port  and 
also  one  of  its  chief  educational  centers. 

EVANGELISTIC  SCHOOL 

The  students  of  the  Evangelistic  School  for  Women  have 
come  from  all  over  Japan  ;  two  are  Korean  ;  three  are  Presby¬ 
terians  supported  by  their  own  denomination  ;  four  are  fian¬ 
cees  of  young  evangelists  ;  seven  are  graduates  of  Christian 
schools;  eleven  of  public  schools;  six  have  had  higher  courses; 
thirteen  have  taught  school. 

The  course  of  study  includes  not  only  the  Bible,  but  a 
goodly  amount  of  historical,  theological  and  pedagogical 
work  with  music  and  practical  training  in  Sunday  Schools 
and  visiting  homes. 

This  practical  work  is  as  varied  as  the  exceptional  privi¬ 
leges  of  a  Christian  center  with  long  established  churches  and 
experienced  workers,  combined  with  the  unevangelized  dis¬ 
tricts  of  the  city  and  suburbs,  allow.  Pupils  who  have  com¬ 
pleted  two  years  of  study  are  required  to  have  as  a  part  of 
their  third  year  work  five  months  of  practical  field  work  in 
connection  with  some  church  or  missionarv. 


^Deceased, 


4 


Of  104  graduates,  fifty-three  are  now  in  direct  work, 
fourteen  have  died,  fourteen  are  working  for  other  denomi¬ 
nations,  fifteen  are  wives  of  Kumiai  pastors,  eleven  are  Bible 
women  under  the  mission,  eight  are  in  Japanese  employ,  two 
are  employed  jointly  by  the  mission  and  Japanese.  Their 
aggregate  length  of  service  is  855  years. 

’  This  institution  has  for  five  years  past  been  calling  loudly 
for  a  new  American  teacher.  Where  is  the  well-trained  young 
woman  ready  to  share  in  this  far-reaching  work? 

Missionaries  and  students  are  much  interested  in  various 
philanthropic  institutions  in  the  city,  especially  a  Home  for 
Discharged  Prisoners  with  its  new  department  for  delinquent 
boys,  a  Woman’s  Welfare  Association  whose  work  it  is  to 
befriend  friendless  women  stranded  in  Kobe,  and  a  Blind 
Asylum  which  has  just  succeeded  in  securing  a  home  of 
its  own. 

THE  GLORY  KINDERGARTEN  TRAINING  SCHOOL 
AND  KINDERGARTEN 

The  class  of  seventeen  graduating  from  the  Training 
School  in  March  one  afternoon  gave  an  “At  Home”  including 

a  music  recital,  a  foreign  tea  for  the 
guests,  and  an  exhibit  in  two  large 
rooms  of  the  work  they  have  done 
in  art,  nature,  Bible,  kindergarten 
hand  work  and  theoretical  work. 
The  graduating  exercises  were  held 
in  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  and  were  a 
delightful  practical  demonstration 
of  the  work  these  young  women  are 
prepared  to  do  for  the  children  of 
Japan.  A  new  class  of  seventeen 
took  the  place  of  the  graduating 
class  for  whom  there  were  more 
good  positions  open  than  they  could 
fill.  Miss  Howe  emphasizes  the  fact 
that  the  time  has  come  in  the  his¬ 
tory  of  kindergartens  when  •  each 
one  should  be  obedient  to  its  own 
vision.  She  says,  “Our  particular 
vision  in  Glory  Kindergarten  is  the 
charm  of  leading  the  children  out 
to  a  broad  view  of  the  world  and  to 


5 


an  ennobling  conception  of  life.’’  With  this  in  view  they  have 
given  the  children  a  study  of  nations  and  their  individual  gifts 
to  the  rest  of  the  world.  After  a  series  of  lessons  on  thankfulness 
to  God,  the  children  made  a  gift  to  Belgium  of  sixty  yen  ($30). 
Although  Miss  Howe  was  in  America  for  several  months  her 
lieutenants  carried  on  the  work  satisfactorily. 

A  new  plant  for  Glory  Kindergarten  and  Training 
School  is  one  of  the  objectives  of  our  Jubilee  Building  Fund. 
Toward  the  $50,000  needed  for  the  purchase  of  land  and  erec¬ 
tion  of  building  $13,721.84  are  now  in  hand. 

Another  call  of  this  institution  is  for  a  young  kinder- 
gartner  equipped  with  the  best  training  as  well  as  the  mis¬ 
sionary  spirit  who  shall  be  associated  with  Miss  Howe  and 
Miss  Fanning. 

KOBE  COLLEGE 

An  enrollment  of  forty-six  in  the  college  department,  291 
in  the  Academy  and  nineteen  in  Music,  is  the  attendance  rec¬ 
ord  of  Kobe  College  for  the  school  year  1917-18.  The  faculty 
numbers  thirty-four,  seven  of  whom  are  American  women, 
eighteen  Japanese  women  and  nine  Japanese  men.  Of  the 
students  118  are  Christians,  while  155  come  from  homes  in 
which  one  or  more  members  are  Christian. 

The  college  has  inaugurated  faculty  lectures  and  group 
conferences  to  stimulate  intellectual  growth  among  its  faculty 
members  and  rejoices  in  the  return  of  one  teacher  from  Amer¬ 
ica  with  a  degree  from  Clark  University. 

The  Alumnae  Association  is  proving  its  devotion  not 
only  by  efforts  toward  an  endowment  but  by  a  gift  at  Christ¬ 
mas  time  to  augment  the  salaries  of  teachers  who  in  these 
days  are  finding  it  very  hard  to  live  on  what  the  college  can 
pay.  The  alumnae  endowment  fund  has  now  reached  the 
sum  of  18,000  yen  ($9,000)  and  the  association  is  employing 
a  part  time  worker  to  push  the  cause.  In  this  war  time,  when 
the  Atlantic  is  closed  to  casual  travelers,  Kobe  is  a  stopping- 
place  for  people  from  Africa,  India  and  Russia  on  their  way  to 
America,  and  the  year  has  brought  to  the  college  unusual 
richness  in  the  line  of  chapel  talks  and  other  addresses. 

The  social  service  of  the  student  body  included  work 
through  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.  and  the  National  Christian 
woman’s  movement  for  the  abolition  of  licensed  prostitution; 
special  work  for  Armenian  orphans,  and  the  packing  of  two 

6 


Kobe  College  Girls  with  Thanksgiving  Offerings 


Christmas  boxes  of  utilities  and  toys  for  the  Smith  College 
Relief  Unit  in  France.  The  school  buildings  were  lent  in  July 
for  one  of  the  summer  conferences  of  the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  and  the 
seventy  students  from  the  school  who  registered  found  the 
meetings  very  inspiring. 

A  member  of  the  last  American  Board  Deputation  to 
Japan  says,  “I  recently  had  the  privilege  of  wide  travel  in 
that  empire  (Japan)  and  I  was  deeply  impressed  with  the 
range  and  the  depth  of  the  impression  which  the  work  of 
Kobe  College  had  made.  Not  only  has  it  touched  the  woman¬ 
hood  of  Japan  profoundly  during  the  last  forty  years,  but  it 
has  had  a  most  considerable  part  in  raising  the  ideals  of 
womanhood  for  the  whole  nation.” 

Another  member  of  the  Deputation  felicitates  the  W. 
B.  M.  I.  and  the  college  on  its  president,  Miss  Charlotte  B. 
DeForest,  of  whom  he  says:  “So  highly  is  she  esteemed 
in  educational  circles  in  Japan  that  she  was  offered  the  presi¬ 
dency  of  the  recently  established  Union  Woman’s  University 
at  Tokyo — a  position  she  declined  that  she  might  remain  with 
Kobe  College.” 

Evidently  the  time  has  come  when  we  must  seriously 
face  the  question  of  securing  adequate  endowment  and  much 
larger  equipment  for  Kobe  College.  To  quote  again  from 
one  who  has  very  recently  studied  the  opportunity :  “The 
College  should  have  resources  equal  to  those  of  any  college 
for  women  in  America  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  any  college 
in  this  country  is  so  indispensable  in  its  place  as  is  Kobe 
College  in  Japan.  Contributions  to  its  resources  would  con¬ 
stitute  one  of  the  wisest  of  Christian  investments.” 

With  the  beginning  of  its  fall  term  Kobe  College  has 
made  a  direct  contribution  to  the  war  in  allowing  Miss  Sarah 
M.  Field  to  accept  a  call  from  the  American  Red  Cross  to 
emergency  work  in  Siberia.  She  goes  as  dietician  and  will 
oversee  Christian  Japanese  women  as  they  serve  in  canteens 
or  in  caring  for  refugees.  She  left  Tokyo  for  Vladivostok  on 
September  first,  outfitted  in  gray  uniform,  scarlet  lined  cape, 
kit  bag  and  the  cheerful  heart  that  packs  up  all  its  troubles 
and  smiles ! 

MATSUYAMA 

Miss  H.  Frances  Parmelee  in  Matsuyama  is  doing  neigh¬ 
borhood  and  social  work  in  connection  with  factories  where 
girls  are  employed.  A  large  number  of  girls  work  in  these 

8 


factories  who  are  on  the  average  younger  than  girls  similarly 
employed  in  America  and  a  much  larger  proportion  of  them 
are  away  from  home  living  in  factory  boarding  houses.  Of 
1.000  girl  workers  in  Matsuyama  factories  in  1910  only  386 
were  above  twenty  years  of  age  and  seven  were  under  twelve. 
Only  280  of  the  1,000  lived  at  home  with  their  parents.  Many 
of  the  men  employed  in  the  same  factories  are  mentally  and 
morally  of  a  low  grade  and  are  a  constant  menace  to  these 
young  girls.  Some  of  the  factory  boarding  houses  are  little 
better  than  places  of  prostitution.  The  W.  B.  M.  I.  rejoices 
to  hold  out  through  Miss  Parmelee  a  helping  hand  to  these 
helpless  ones. 

OKAYAMA 

Miss  Mary  E.  Wainwright,  for  thirty-two  years  our 
missionary,  entered  into  rest  on  July  1,  1918.  For  most  of 
that  long  period  her  activities  centered  in  Hokubu  Church  in 
Okayama  and  this  church  is  her  true  monument.  Through 
visiting  the  homes  and  teaching  Bible  and  English  classes, 
she  wrought  into  the  lives  of  Japanese  youth  of  both  sexes 
her  own  clear  vision  of  the  realities  and  values  of  life  and 
there  are  many  who  call  her  blessed.  In  early  years  she 
adopted  a  Japanese  boy  who  is  now  an  honored  and  useful 
pastor. 

CHINA 

SOUTH  CHINA  MISSIOTV — Canton — Girls’  Boarding-  School — Miss  Mabel 
E.  Daniels,  Miss  S.  Josephine  Davis,  Miss  Ruth  E.  Mulliken,  Miss 
Helen  Tow. 

Normal  School — Miss  Edna  Lowrey. 

FOOCHOW  MISSION — Foochow— Evangelistic  and  Philanthropic  Work — 
Miss  Emily  S.  Hartwell. 

Ingtai — Girls’  Boarding  School  and  Evangelistic  Work — Miss  L.  Vera 
McReynolds,  Miss  Elizabeth  Waddell. 

SHAOWU  MISSION — Shaowu — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Frances  K. 
Bement. 

Hospital — Dr.  Lucy  P.  Bement. 

Evangelistic  School — Miss  Josephine  Walker. 

Kien  Ning — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Grace  A.  Funk. 

NORTH  CHINA  MISSION — Peking — Union  Woman’s  College — Miss  Luella 
Miner,  Miss  Katherine  P.  Crane,  Miss  Anna  M.  Lane,  Miss  Mary- 
ette  H.  Lum. 

Bridgman  Academy — Miss  Lucy  I.  Mead,  Miss  Louise  E.  Miske, 
Miss  Anne  B.  Kelley. 

Kindergarten  and  Training  School — Miss  Adelle  L.  Tenney. 
Evangelistic  Work — Mrs.  Mary  P.  Ament. 

Tientsin — Evangelistic  Work — Miss  Jessie  E.  Payne. 

Tehchow — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Mabel  I.  Huggins,  Miss  Alice 
C.  Reed. 

Evangelistic — Miss  E.  Gertrude  Wyckoff,  Miss  Esme  V.  Ander¬ 
son. 

Hospital — Dr.  Amy  A.  Metcalf,  Miss  Myra  L.  Sawyer, 

9 


Lintsing — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Ethel  M.  Long. 

Evangelistic — Miss  Edith  C.  Tallmon. 

Fenchow — Girls’  Boarding  School— Miss  Josie  E.  Horn,  Miss  Vera 

Holmes. 

Evangelistic — Miss  Grace  McConnaughey,  Miss  Cora  May 

Walton. 

Hospital — Dr.  Clara  A.  Nutting. 

Taikuhsien — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Alzina  C.  Munger. 

Evangelistic — Miss  Flora  K.  Heebner,  Miss  Gladys  M.  Williams. 

Hospital — Miss  Alma  Atzel. 

One  turns  to  China  today  in  a  very  expectant  frame  of 
mind.  So  much  has  been  said  and  written  of  the  vitality  of 
an  ancient  people  who  can  rise  and  cast  out  an  antiquated 
form  of  government  that  one  comes  to  expect  that  in  all  re¬ 
spects  the  people  of  the  new  republic  have  set  their  feet  on  the 
swift  road  to  enlightenment.  It  is  therefore  with  something 
of  a  shock  that  we  discover  that  the  custom  of  infanticide 
still  prevails,  that  the  dead  bodies  of  unwelcome  girl  babies 
are  still  placed  upon  shelves  in  the  open  street  to  await  the 
rounds  of  the  dead  collector  and  that  hungry  dogs  often  reach 
after  and  devour  them  ;  that  in  any  interior  city  foot-binding, 
far  from  being  a  thing  of  the  past,  is  still  so  prevalent  that 
one  going  casually  into  the  street  can  hardly  escape  the  cries 
of  little  girls  having  their  feet  bound. 

The  women  of  China  are  still  bound  quite  as  much  by 
their  own  superstition  and  conservatism  as  by  any  restric¬ 
tions  placed  upon  them  from  without,  and  the  fact  that  in  the 
coast  cities  and  in  centers  of  missionary  effort  many  women 
are  throwing  off  the  old  shackles  is  itself  fraught  with  an 
element  of  danger. 

What  is  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  doing  to  lift  and  guide  China’s 
womanhood  ? 

canton  South  China  Mission 

In  the  great  city  of  Canton,  a  city  of  2,000,000  popula¬ 
tion,  is  located  our  South  China  Girls’  School.  Though  begun 
as  a  day  school,  a  boarding  department  was  opened  in  1903. 
The  school  has  one  good  building  which  accommodates  thirty- 
four  girls.  So  many  have  been  the  girls  seeking  entrance 
that  temporary  buildings  have  been  erected  to  accommodate 
twenty  or  twenty-five  more  but  for  the  last  two  years  the 
school  has  been  obliged  to  refuse  more  girls  than  it  has  ac¬ 
cepted.  An  additional  dormitory,  a  school  building,  and  a 
home  for  the  American  teachers  are  immediate  necessities 
and  are  to  be  provided  through  our  Jubilee  Building  Fund, 
Some  of  the  girls  are  wealthy,  some  poor,  but  all  sweep  their 

10 


own  rooms,  make  their  own  beds,  and  help  with  the  cooking-. 
The  curriculum  corresponds  to  the  first  eight  grades  of  Amer¬ 
ican  public  schools  with  the  addition  of  Bible  study.  Prac¬ 
tically  every  student  becomes  a  Christian  before  leaving  the 
school.  The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  is  a  great  influence  in  their  lives. 
The  girls  upon  graduation  become  teachers  or  home-makers. 
After  visiting  the  home  into  which  one  of  her  girls  has  gone, 
Miss  Mulliken  says:  “The  rooms  were  neat  and  clean.  The 
mother  herself  was  well  dressed,  with  a  halo  of  love  and 
devotion  about  her,  and  best  of  all  the  children,  even  the 
baby,  were  as  clean  as  soap  and  water  could  make  them.  It 
was  a  happy  and  contented  family.  If  only  one  such  home 
in  a  generation  were  the  result  of  Christian  education  it  would 
still  be  worth  while.” 

A  crying  need  is  for  better  trained  Chinese  teachers  and 
the  W.  B.  M.  I.  has  accepted  a  share  of  the  responsibility  for 
a  Union  Normal  School  in  which  four  missions  co-operate. 
Miss  Uowrey  is  our  representative  in  this  school. 

Foochow  Mission 

An  outstanding  event  of  the  year  in  the  Foochow  Mis¬ 
sion  is  the  elevation  of  the  station  of  Shaowu  into  a  separate 
mission,  to  be  known  henceforth  as  the  Shaowu  Mission,  a 
step  deemed  desirable  because  of  the  difiference  in  living  con¬ 
ditions  and  language  in  the  interior  provinces  from  those 
prevailing  in  Foochow. 

FOOCHOW 

The  work  of  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  in  the  great  coast  city  is 
chiefly  evangelistic,  our  onlv  missionary  now  there  being  Miss 
Emily  Hartwell.  She  is  surely  a  “live  missionary”  for  she  not 
only  supervises  our  Boarding  Station  Class  for  women  and 
a  great  variety  of  activities  among  the  women  of  the  Chris¬ 
tian  churches,  but  is  also  the  guiding  spirit  in  several  lines 
of  union  philanthropic  and  industrial  work  to  which  the  Chi¬ 
nese  themselves,  Christian  and  non-Christians,  are  large  con¬ 
tributors.  As  illustrating  the  scope  of  a  missionary's  “out¬ 
side”  duties  it  may  be  interesting  to  list  these  activities.  Miss 
Hartwell  is  a  member  of  the  Fukien  Uniform  Examination 
Committee,  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Managers  and  of  the 
Board  of  Trustees  of  the  Christian  Herald  Fukien  Industrial 
Homes,  secretary  and  Foochow  treasurer  for  Beacon  Hill 
Farm  Association,  and  one  of  the  promoters  of  the  hoped  for 

11 


Chinese  hospital  of  which  Dr.  Hie-ding  Ling  is  to  have  charge. 
The  last  named  work  brings  her  into  close  contact  with  offi¬ 
cial  and  gentry  classes  and  leading  business  men.  1  he  Chris¬ 
tian  Herald  Industrial  Homes  are  orphanages  in  whose  sup¬ 
port  and  management  leading  missionaries  and  Chinese  pas¬ 
tors  of  the  Anglican  Mission,  the  Methodist  Mission  and  the 
American  Board  unite.  Beacon  Hill  Farm  not  only  gives  to 
the  orphan  boys  training  in  agriculture  and  an  opportunity 
to  become  independent,  self-respecting  citizens  but  has  proved 
a  veritable  health-preserver  for  many  who  were  physically 
below  par.  An  industrial  school  for  girls  is  a  part  of  this 
important  work. 

Little  wonder  that  recently  Miss  Hartwell  received  the 
rare  honor  of  special  recognition  from  government  officials. 
The  Mayor  of  the  Ming  Hao  magistracy  presented  to  the 
Governor  of  the  Province,  who  in  turn  passed  on  to  the  Pres¬ 
ident  of  the  Republic  in  Peking,  a  document  enumerating  Miss 
Hartwell's  labors  of  love  and  asking  for  a  “special  token  of 
grace  from  the  Government  in  the  form  of  a  medal  together 
with  a  response  of  appreciation  which  will  tell  others  of  Miss 
Hartwell’s  philanthropy  and  emulate  them  to  follow  in  her 
foot-steps.” 


INGTAI 

Is  forty  miles  up  the  river  from  Foochow  in  the  center 
of  a  remarkably  beautiful  mountain  district.  The  school  girls 
come  from  small  villages  nestling  in  the  valleys  between 
mountain  ranges.  The  people  are  poor  but  very  industrious 
as  they  must  needs  be  to  eke  out  a  living  from  their  tiny 
fields  cultivated  by  slow-moving  buffalo  cows.  No  amount 
of  labor  is  counted  too  great  for  redeeming  every  inch  of  till¬ 
able  soil.  The  school  girls  are  bright  and  attractive  but  many 
are  allowed  to  study  only  a  few  years  and  then  are  married. 
They  receive  the  beginnings  of  a  good  general  education, 
much  training  in  the  Bible  and  the  principles  of  Christianity, 
and  are  all  taught  cleanliness  and  sanitation.  Many  become 
eager  Christian  workers  and  the  school  girls  during  their 
summer  vacations  do  much  to  overcome  prejudice  and  win  the 
people.  Miss  Waddell  thus  describes  her  visit  with  a  Bible 
woman  to  one  of  the  larger  villages :  “The  home  was  a  por¬ 
tion  of  a  large  house  and  soon  so  many  women  gathered  that 
the  capacity  of  the  room  was  exhausted  and  we  went  to  the 
large  hall  which  is  found  in  most  Chinese  houses.  All  the 

12 


next  day  and  Sunday  afternoon  we  continued  this  house  to 
house  visiting,  always  receiving  a  cordial  reception  even 
though  the  presence  of  idols  and  ancestral  tablets  gave  evi¬ 
dence  that  the  home  was  heathen.  I  suppose  that  in  that  vil¬ 
lage  we  gave  the  gospel  message  to  at  least  250  women  and 
as  many  children.  Occasionally  a  man  or  two  was  in  the 
audience.  In  one  place  our  coming  broke  up  a  native  school 
held  in  a  room  adjoining  the  public  hall  and  I  felt  like  apolo¬ 
gizing  to  the  poor  old  school  master.’’ 

Shaowu  Mission 

Shaowu  has  long  been  one  of  the  best  known  and  best 
loved  of  mission  centers  to  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  workers,  for  here 
we  have  a  quartette  of  finely  managed  and  efficient  mission 
institutions  and  a  quartette  of  the  finest  of  women  in  charge 
of  them.  Dr.  Lucy  Bement  is  putting  her  very  life  into  the 
Sarah  Parker  Memorial  Hospital  for  women  and  children; 
Miss  Josephine  Walker  has  charge  of  the  school  for  married 
women  and  of  various  allied  evangelistic  activities;  Miss 
Frances  K.  Bement  superintends  “the  most  interesting  school 
for  girls  in  all  China”  with  ninety  girls  in  the  boarding  de¬ 
partment;  and  Miss  Funk  has  built  up  a  successful  system  of 
Day  Schools  in  the  city  and  the  country  round  about.  Inci¬ 
dentally  each  of  these  missionaries  tours  the  country  held  and 
seizes  every  opportunity  for  coming  into  close  contact  with 
Chinese  homes.  But  they  have  done  more  than  simply 
“carry  on”  successfully.  Like  the  polyp,  they  have  multi¬ 
plied  themselves  by  division  and  Miss  Funk  now  signs  herself 
“Your  Kien  Ning  missionary.”  She  tells  the  story  in  this 
wise:  “These  are  Red  Letter  Days!  For  years  I  have  been 
dreaming  of  a  Girls’  Boarding  School  at  Kien  Ning,  three 
days’  journey  from  Shaowu,  and  farther,  oh,  very  much  far¬ 
ther  from  Foochow  or  any  other  place  you  ever  heard  of. 
The  best  description  I  can  give  of  it  is  just  that  it  is  ‘some¬ 
where  in  China.'  For  the  last  few  months  the  dream  has  been 
taking  tangible  form,  and  now  behold  a  school!  We  haven’t 
any  grounds,  we  haven't  any  appropriation,  we  haven’t  any 
doctor  or  nurse,  and  we  haven't  any  real  equipment.  But  we 
have  twenty-three  bright,  interesting  girls  in  the  boarding 
department  and  eighteen  more  in  the  day  school.  We  have 
rented  a  Chinese  house  adequate  only  for  the  twenty-seven 
people  now  filling  it.  We  have  a  few  desks,  tables,  benches, 
beds,  stools  and  boards,  a  borrowed  clock,  a  second-hand 

13 


hanging  lamp,  an  old  baby  organ  used  eleven  years  in  a  chapel 
and  one  lone  missionary.  How  are  we  financing  the  school 
Though  the  district  is  the  very  poorest  of  our  field,  the  girls 
have  paid  one-half  the  cost  of  their  board,  and  the  Shaowu 
girls  consented  to  an  increase  in  what  they  pay  for  their  own 
board  that  Ivien  Ning  girls  might  have  a  part  of  their  school 
appropriation.  The  Shaowu  Girls’  School  has  also  paid  the 
salaries  of  two  of  our  girl  teachers  as  their  Thankoffering 
and  I  paid  the  salary  of  the  man  who  taught  Classics  for  us. 
The  Woman’s  Society  of  the  Shaowu  East  Gate  Church  gave 
$10  and  a  few  friends  in  America  have  sent  gifts.  Without 
Mr.  Goddard’s  help  we  could  never  have  paid  our  rent." 

How  the  glow  of  fine  enthusiasm  on  the  part  of  Miss 
Funk,  Miss  Bement,  the  Shaowu  school  girls  and  Christian 
women  warms  our  own  hearts  !  Surely  we  cannot  fail  to  find 
the  $300  they  ask  from  the  Board  to  keep  this  Jubilee  School 
going  in  1919  or  the  $3,000  they  need  to  provide  a  permanent 
home  for  the  school.  Still  less  can  we  fail  them  when  we 
know  that  those  girls  having  their  first  touch  with  a  Chris¬ 
tian  boarding  school,  and  out  of  all  their  poverty  sent  a  Jubi¬ 
lee  gift  of  $3,  to  the  Board  and  over  $4  to  the  flood  sufferers  in 
North  China. 

Both  Kien  Ning  and  Shaowu  are  also  calling  for  an  offer¬ 
ing  of  life,  for  Miss  Funk  must  not  be  allowed  long  to  remain 
the  one  lone  missionary  in  the  new  station  and  brave  Miss 
Bement  in  Shaowu  must  not  be  expected  to  do  two  women's 
work  because  she  has  so  unselfishly  consented  to  her  asso¬ 
ciate’s  reaching  out  to  meet  the  new  need.  Dr.  Lucy  also 
must  shortly  have  an  associate  in  her  exacting  hospital  work. 
The  alternative  will  be  a  break  in  her  health  and  the  work 
left  with  no  one  in  charge. 

North  China  Mission 

The  past  year  in  North  China  will  go  down  in  history  as 
the  year  of  the  great  flood  and  pneumonic  plague.  In  the 
province  of  Chihli  to  the  south  of  Peking  and  in  the  Shantung 
province  whole  counties  were  submerged,  houses  and  crops 
destroyed,  and  the  people  brought  to  the  verge  of  starvation. 
A  little  later  in  the  year  practically  all  the  missionary  doctors 
and  their  helpers  gave  themselves  to  a  heroic  fight  against  the 
pneumonic  plague  which  was  working  great  havoc  in  the 
provinces  of  Shansi  and  parts  of  Chihli. 

14 


PEKING 

In  China's  capital  we  have  a  system  of  schools  from 
Kindergarten  to  College,  with  also  a  training  school  for  kin- 
clergarten  teachers,  a  Bible  Training  School,  and  a  varied 
evangelistic  and  social  work. 

o  #  # 

The  college  and  the  Bible  Training  School  are  union  in¬ 
stitutions  in  whose  support  and  development  the  American, 
Methodist,  and  American  Presbyterian  Boards,  and  the  Lon¬ 
don  Missionarv  Society  are  interested  as  well  as  ourselves. 
Bridgman  Academy  serves  the  whole  of  the  North  China 
Mission,  schools  of  other  stations  sending  their  girls  here  for 
higher  training. 

NORTH  CHINA  UNION  WOMAN’S  COLLEGE 

As  yet  only  a  comparatively  small  number  of  selected 
girls  reach  the  college  but  these  represent  many  provinces 
and  all  classes  of  society. 

Our  Jubilee  Building  Fund  made  it  possible  two  and 
one-half  years  ago  to  purchase  the  estate  of  an  impoverished 
Manchu  Duke  as  a  home  for  the  college.  The  dilapidated 
buildings  were  repaired  and  transformed  into  dormitory, 
library,  recitation  halls  and  missionary  residence,  a  truly  sig¬ 
nificant  transformation.  The  students  numbered  forty-five, 
thirty-six  of  whom  have  done  only  college  work.  These  col¬ 
lege  girls,  true  to  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  have  been  stirred 
by  the  needs  of  the  flood  sufferers  and  last  fall  asked  to  have 
thirty-five  orphan  girls  committed  to  their  care.  They  gave 
an  entertainment  to  raise  money,  rented  a  Chinese  house  and 
engaged  a  Christian  Chinese  woman  to  live  with  their  little 
flock.  They  themselves  became  responsible  for  the  manage¬ 
ment  of  the  household,  for  the  children’s  sewing,  and  for  much 
of  the  teaching.  As  the  months  slipped  by  it  was  evident  that 
the  lessons  of  unselfish  love  and  service  were  doing  much  for 
the  college  girls  themselves  while  they  served  the  needy  little 
ones. 

This  Union  College,  the  only  institution  to  which  the 
daughters  of  the  millions  of  the  northern  half  of  China  may 
look  for  a  college  education,  has  been  understaffed  and  for 
Miss  Miner’s  sake  as  also  for  the  sake  of  the  work,  we  rejoice 
that  its  faculty  is  this  year  being  strengthened  by  the  addi¬ 
tion  of  several  members;  Mrs.  Alice  Brown  Frame,  who  brings 
a  rich  missionary  experience  as  well  as  rare  preparation  to 
this  work,  Miss  Anna  M.  Lane  for  the  Science  Department,  a 

15 


worker  each  from  the  Methodist  and  Presbyterian  Boards  and 
lastly  our  own  Miss  Orvis  to  serve  here  while  she  waits  to 
re-enter  Turkey. 

BRIDGMAN  ACADEMY 

Thirteen  girls  were  graduated  from  the  regular  course  in 
Bridgman  Academy  and  four  from  the  kindergarten  course. 
Of  these  Academy  girls  Miss  Mead  says:  “Some  were  bright 
students,  some  were  very  poor  students,  and  some  betweeners. 
Some  were  from  Christian  homes,  some  from  anti-Christian 
homes.  Two  sisters,  Christian  at  heart  but  from  non-Chris¬ 
tian  homes,  were  the  only  ones  of  the  class  who  had  not 
openly  taken  their  stand  for  Christ  by  joining  the  church. 
Another  two  had  gone  through  many  stages  of  questionings 
and  doubts  but  had  been  greatly  helped  by  the  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
summer  conference." 

Sixteen  young  girls  in  neat  uniforms  consisting  of  black 
skirt  and  light  blue  waist,  and  with  their  hair  for  the  first 
time  done  up  on  their  heads  received  diplomas  from  the 
Grammar  School. 

Miss  Tenney  writes  with  enthusiasm  of  the  work  of  her 
seventy  kindergarten  tots  in  the  central  school.  “They  are 
quick,  keen,  with  good  memories,  and  good  powers  of  reason¬ 
ing,  which  in  the  new  education  may  enable  them  also  to  de¬ 
velop  into  useful  and  productive  citizens."  Two  kindergartens 
in  other  parts  of  the  city  bring  the  Christian  touch  to  still 
other  homes. 

EVANGELISTIC  AND  SOCIAL  WORK 

The  many  needs  of  the  poor  brought  about  the  organ¬ 
ization  of  a  Red  Cross  Chapter  in  Peking  where  missionary 
and  other  foreign  women  with  Christian  and  non-Christian 
Chinese  women  have  met  in  a  common  cause.  Funds  were 
provided  by  the  American  ajgd  the  Chinese  Red  Cross  Socie¬ 
ties  together  with  gifts  for  flood  sufferers.  Many  hundreds 
of  garments  were  sent  to  the  refuge  camps,  and  there  was 
also  sewing  for  the  soldiers  and  some  of  the  night  shirts  made 
in  Peking  are  worn  by  American  soldiers  in  France. 

THE  UNION  BIBLE  TRAINING  SCHOOL 

Ffas  had  about  forty  pupils.  In  May  a  class  of  sixteen 
women  graduated,  the  first  to  complete  the  three  years'  course. 
The  entire  class  gave  two  months  of  their  spring  term  to 
work  in  the  refuge  camps,  two  going  together  to  a  refuge 
and  there  comforting  and  instructing  the  women  and  children. 

16 


Many  parts  of  the  work  in  Peking  have  been  materially 
aided  as  well  as  spiritually  refreshed  by  a  visit  from  Miss 
Mary  Porter  and  her  brother,  Mr.  James  Porter.  An  enlarged 
kindergarten  room  freshly  painted  and  calcimined  is  one 
evidence  of  their  magic  wand.  The  new  $10,000  home  for 
the  Bible  School  is  a  larger  monument  to  Mr.  Porter’s  gener¬ 
osity  and  is  greatly  appreciated. 

Shantung 

The  Woman’s  Board  of  Missions  of  the  Interior  has  an 
interest  in  two  fields  of  the  Shantung  Province,  Tehchow  and 
Lintsing. 

TEHCHOW 

Many  of  the  women  of  the  Interior  within  the  last  three 
years  have  invested  money  and  with  it  their  heart's  love  in 
the  new  buildings  in  Tehchow.  They  were  practically  com¬ 
pleted  early  in  1917,  dormitory  and  school  building  for  the 
Grace  Wyckoff  Memorial  School,  Porter  Hospital  for  women 
and  children  and  a  residence  for  our  missionary  women. 
School  had  been  in  session  about  a  week,  it  being  the  first  use 
of  the  new  school  buildings,  the  hospital  was  full  of  patients, 
the  training  school  for  nurses  too,  was  well  started  on  its 
year’s  work,  when  the  waters  not  only  descended  from  the 
clouds  but  mounted  up  from  the  river  and  canal.  Cellars  were 
flooded  and  then  living  rooms  on  the  first  floor.  Missionaries 
with  all  others  in  the  compound  who  were  able  to  work  set 
about  moving  furniture,  medicines  and  all  supplies  as  also 
hospital  patients,  to  the  second  and  finally  to  the  third  story 
rooms.  It  required  no  small  courage  to  improvise  cooking 
facilities,  care  for  patients,  keep  every  one  busy  and  yet  calm, 
while  all  the  time  the  waters  could  be  heard  flowing  in 
through  windows  and  doors  and  like  some  evil  but  irresistible 
spirit  steadily  climbing  the  stairs.  At  length  the  school  girls 
were  helped  into  boats  waiting  outside  the  second  story  win¬ 
dows  and  were  sent  to  their  homes.  Later  when  it  became 
evident  that  it  would  not  be  possible  to  use  the  buildings 
during  the  year,  the  girls  were  gathered  at  Lintsing  and  their 
school  work  carried  on  in  connection  with  the  girls’  school 
there. 

PORTER  HOSPITAL 

In  spite  of  floods  and  consequent  confusion,  the  work 
of  the  hospital  and  Braining  School  for  Nurses  continued 

17 


almost  without  interruption.  With  water  reaching  to  the 
ceiling  of  the  first  floor,  with  the  moving  of  furniture  and 
equipment  and  providing  food  for  patients,  those  were  strenu¬ 
ous  days,  but  Chinese  doctors  and  helpers  as  well  as  mis¬ 
sionaries  stayed  by  and  the  hospital  was  at  no  time  without 
patients. 

'A  branch  dispensary  was  opened  in  the  South  Suburb  as 
it  was  the  only  land  out  of  water.  Communication  with  the 
outside  world  was  maintained  by  means  of  boats  and  later 
refugees  were  employed  in  building  a  road  for  which  they 
hauled  dirt  on  sleds  on  the  ice. 

The  Nurses’  Training  School  has,  despite  vicissitudes, 
maintained  the  high  standards  early  established.  The  China 
Medical  Board  of  the  Rockefeller  Foundation  joins  the  mis¬ 
sion  in  urging  that  a  second  trained  nurse  be  sent  out  to  be 
associated  with  Miss  Sawyer  in  the  onerous  tasks  of  hospitals 
and  training  school. 

The  nurses  in  training,  men  and  women,  are  taking  practi¬ 
cally  the  same  courses  as  are  given  in  training  schools  in 
America,  but  as  they  have  much  less  foundation  on  which  to 
build  it  seems  necessary  to  extend  the  course  over  four  years. 
Two  of  the  young  men  students  have  within  the  year  gone  to 
France  and  one  of  the  women  students  had  to  drop  out  for 
reasons  of  health.  Two  of  the  young  men  from  the  Shansi 
region  went  with  missionary  and  Chinese  doctors  to  fight  the 
pneumonic  plague. 

An  epidemic  of  lawlessness  had  prevailed  in  the  Shan¬ 
tung  province,  due  to  disturbed  industrial  and  political  con¬ 
ditions  and  Miss  Sawyer  writes  of  wards  filled  with  gun-shot, 
fracture  and  burn  cases,  adding  “We  are  daily  fighting  tetanus, 
septicemia,  cancer  and  tuberculosis.  Could  you  actually  see 
the  unrelieved  suffering  in  this  land  you  would  long  to  make 
it  possible  to  pour  forth  skilled  care  for  these  millions,  even 
as  so  many  hundreds  of  American  nurses  are  pouring  forth 
their  offering  of  service  to  the  stricken  people  of  Europe 
today.” 

LINTSING 

The  Lintsing  school  already  inadequately  housed  was  put 
to  it  to  find  sleeping,  living  and  recitation  rooms  for  the  addi¬ 
tional  twenty-five  girls  from  Tehchow,  but  a  long  low  build¬ 
ing  intended  originally  for  stables  was  requisitioned,  a  new 
door  or  two  cut,  partition  walls  replaced,  a  shed  for  the 

18 


washing  and  drying  of  clothes  erected,  and  the  work  of  the 
two  schools  went  forward  in  orderly  fashion.  To  be  sure  two 
men  teachers  of  Chinese  classics  had  to  occupy  the  dining 

room  in  the  missionary 
ladies’  residence  at  the 
same  time,  but  one  had 
his  class  write  while  the 
other  class  recited  and 
all  tried  to  be  patient  if 
meals  could  not  be  served 
quite  promptly  or  the  air 
of  the  room  could  not  be 
kept  pure  and  fresh. 

At  Christmas  time  the 
girls  of  both  schools  gave 
an  entertainment  at  the 
church  for  the  women 
and  children  of  the  com¬ 
munity.  It  was  a  play 
entitled  “No  Room  in 
the  Inn”,  and  ^greatly 
pleased  the  audience. 

Many  of  the  songs 
taught  the  girls  by  Miss 
Grace  Wyckoff  are 
handed  down  from  gen¬ 
eration  to  generation  of 
school  girls  and  continue 
to  speak  to  the  people  of 
her  unfailing  love  for 
them.  The  girls  carried 
on  evangelistic  work  at 
the  street  phapel,  they 
themselves  perhaps  gain 


•F  : 


Callers  in  Lintsing 


mg 


as  much  through 


their  efforts  for  others  as  those  they  tried  to  help. 


Shansi  Province 

TAIKU 

The  Precious  Dew  School  for  Girls  at  Taiku  rejoices  in 
having  for  the  first  time  among  its  teaching  force  a  graduate 
of  the  Union  College  of  Peking.  The  work  of  this  highly 
trained  and  cultured  Chinese  woman  among  them  has  been 

19 


both  a  mental  and  spiritual  stimulus  to  the  school  girls. 
Miss  Lin’s  influence  has  also  reached  out  to  the  women  of 
the  city,  the  patients  in  the  hospital  and  the  students  of  the 
Boys’  Academy,  before  all  of  whom  she  has  at  different  times 
given  lectures  on  hygiene  and  kindred  topics. 

Miss  Munger  says:  “It  is  a  joy  to  watch  new  girls  from 
non-Christian  homes  as  they  blossom  out.  At  first  they  listen 
indifferently,  presently  they  buy  a  song  book  and  then  a 
Bible.  As  they  learn  to  read  they  join  timidly  in  the  singing, 
then  shyly  read  a  verse  of  scripture,  and  before  long  they  too 
offer  short  prayers  when  the  opportunity  offers.” 

The  school  girls  are  encouraged  to  help  themselves  finan¬ 
cially  through  their  needle  work,  and  their  skill  with  the 
needle  has  also  enabled  them  to  make  gifts  to  flood  sufferers 
in  Chihli  and — how  gratefully  we  say  it — also  to  send  Jubilee 
gifts  to  their  Mother  Board  in  America.  What  loving  self- 
denial  is  represented  by  the  twenty-five  dollars  in  gold  Miss 
Heebner  presented  to  the  Board  from  her  school  girls  on  the 
occasion  of  the  Thank-offering  meeting  at  the  rooms. 

FENCHOW 

The  Lydia  Lord  Davis  School  at  Fenchow  regrets  its 
inability  to  turn  out  teachers  in  sufficient  numbers  to  supply 
the  demand.  Of  the  three  girls  completing  the  two  years  of 
Academy  work  given  in  this  school,  two  were  sent  to  Peking 
for  further  training.  The  third  is  teaching.  Two  other  pupils 
of  the  school  have  been  sent  to  Peking  for  a  four  years’  train¬ 
ing  as  nurses. 

On  the  Sundav  before  Christmas  as  the  sun  streamed  in 
through  the  church  windows  in  Fenchow,  it  illuminated  a  beau¬ 
tiful  scene,  truly  a  Christmas  gift  for  the  Savior,  for  seven 
of  the  older  girls  took  the  last  step  in  church  membership, 
three  little  ones  the  first  step,  and  four  the  second. 

Miss  McConnaughey  since  getting  back  from  her  fur¬ 
lough  in  America  has  made  long  and  arduous  country  trips 
and  rejoices  in  the  opportunity  to  become  acquainted  and  to 
choose  possible  future  workers.  She  was  heartened  by  receiv¬ 
ing  women  from  four  of  the  villages  into  the  station  class  for 
definite  Christian  training.  The  Industrial  School  provides 
a  point  of  contact  with  many  women,  and  a  new  building  to 
house  both  the  station  class  and  industrial  school  is  an  imme¬ 
diate  need. 


20 


The  Jubilee  year  of  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  is  in  a  very  real  sense 
proving  to  be  a  Jubilee  year  for  the  Shansi  work  also.  Thither 
have  gone  four  of  our  Jubilee  missionaries:  Gladys  Williams 
to  Taiku,  Dr.  Clara  Nutting,  Cora  May  Walton  and  Vera 
Holmes  to  Fenchow.  Both  stations  are  also  having  their 
share  of  the  Jubilee  buildings,  the  beautiful  and  roomy  mis¬ 
sionary  residence  in  Taiku,  and  the  Mabel  Seelye  Reese  Me¬ 
morial  Wing  being  already  happy  realities,  while  the  money 
is  all  in  hand  for  the  Precious  Dew  School,  the  Alice  Wil¬ 
liams  Woman’s  Work  Building  and  the  funds  are  almost 
collected  for  the  Kindergarten  Building. 

In  Fenchow  the  Kate  Ford  Whitman  Hospital  and  the 
Memorial  Kindergarten  are  now  being  built,  the  missionary 
residence  is  undergoing  extensive  repairs  and  the  Little 
Woman’s  Work  Building  is  also  assured. 


INDIA 


MARATHI  MISSION— Bomba}/ — Blind  School — Miss  Anna  L.  Millard. 

City  Schools — Miss  E.  Loleta  Wood. 

Evangelistic — Miss  Lillian  L.  Picken. 

Literary— Miss  Emily  R.  Bissell. 

MADURA  MISSION — Madura — Lucy  Perry  Noble  Bible  School — Miss  Eva 
M.  Swift. 

Aruvimkottai — Evangelistic — Miss  Catherine  S.  Quickenden. 


Interest  in  India  is  more  general  today  than  ever  before, 
interest  in  her  involved  politics,  her  danger  from  German 
intrigue  and  internal  revolution,  her  longings  for  home  rule 
and  self-expression,  her  attempts  at  internal  reform. 

A  paper  published  in  Bombay  in  one  of  its  recent  issues 
had  an  editorial  entitled — “The  Ferment  in  India,”  one  para¬ 
graph  of  which  reads  as  follows:  “The  most  striking  symptom 
of  India's  present  condition  is  neither  political,  social  nor 
philosophical.  It  is  religious.  No  one  can  study  the  Indian 
press  of  today,  the  utterances  of  leading  Indian  thinkers,  and 
developments  of  a  thousand  and  one  kinds,  without  gaining 
the  deep  conviction  that  underneath  all  the  political  and  social 
unrest  throughout  the  land  there  is  that  deeper  and  more 
fundamental  unrest  which  is  brought  about  by  a  profound 
religious  discontent.  India’s  ancient  religious  customs  and 
beliefs  are  in  the  melting  pot  just  as  truly  as  is  India’s  con¬ 


stitution.” 

Nor  is  India’s  secluded  womanhood  failing  to  share  in 
this  universal  unrest.  A  well  known  writer  who  has  recently 
traveled  in  the  Orient  says:  “There  is  a  general  feeling  in 


21 


India  that  the  springs  of  the  inspiration  of  the  present  Home 
Rule  agitation  are  to  be  found  among  the  women,  even 
though  the  purdah  hangs  between  them  and  the  public  eye. 
It  is  a  well  known  fact  that  many  of  the  leading  women  of 
India  who  have  abandoned  seclusion  are  under  police  sur¬ 
veillance  and  their  free  movement  from  province  to  province 
is  prescribed.” 

The  significance  of  this  seething  unrest  as  a  background 
for  missionary  activities  is  too  evident  to  need  comment. 
How  is  our  Woman’s  Board  “carrying  on”  in  India? 

Our  work  centers  chiefly  in  two  great  cities,  Bombay  on 
the  western  coast,  Madura  in  the  far  south  of  the  peninsula. 


BOMBAY 


Marathi  Mission 


To  all  the  other  complications  of  life  in  Bombay  is  now 
added  the  fact  that  it  is  a  military  center.  From  this  city  are 
sent  forth  thousands  of  India’s  choicest  young  men  into  Meso¬ 
potamia  and  Palestine  and  even  France,  and  to  Bombay  come 
again  ship-loads  and  train-loads  of  maimed  and  sick  to  be 
cared  for  in  the  hospitals  of  the  city.  Is  it  strange  that  our 
missionaries  are  torn  between  the  opportunities  for  service  in 
these  hospitals  and  other  military  centers  and  the  need  of 
maintaining  at  their  highest  efficiency  the  schools  and  other 
institutions  for  which  they  are  directly  responsible?  India 
never  needed  trained  Christian  leaders  so  much  as  she  needs 
them  today  so  the  schools  must  not  languish,  but  the  special 
opportunities  of  the  hour  will  never  come  again  and  we  under¬ 
stand  and  sympathize  with  the  ardent  wish  of  each  of  our 
missionary  women  that  she  could  multiply  herself  by  at 
least  two. 

Of  our  missionaries,  Miss  Millard’s  chief  work  is  in  the 
Blind  School,  an  institution  which  is  each  year  equipping  some 
of  India’s  handicapped  boys  and  girls  for  happy,  self- 
respecting,  independent  living.  Aside  from  instruction  in 
Braille  reading  and  writing  in  Marathi  and  English,  the  boys 
are  taught  cane  work  and  other  manual  occupations ;  the  girls 
to  do  bead  and  other  needle  work.  All  learn  to  sing  and  many 
to  play  some  musical  instrument,  as  music  seems  to  satisfy 
the  restless  spirit  so  natural  in  a  young  life  just  realizing  the 
restrictions  placed  upon  it  by  blindness  and  to  prevent  wan¬ 
dering  into  wrong  paths,  d  he  girls  are  all  taught  such  house¬ 
work  as  they  can  do.  They  help  in  the  care  of  the  little 

22 


children  in  the  school,  among  whom  are  often  one  or  more 
blind  babies.  During  these  war  years  they  have  added  to 
•  their  activities  knitting  for  the  soldiers. 

The  new  home  the  school  has  long  needed  is  now  in 
process  of  construction  and  will  it  is  hoped  be  completed  by 
the  spring  of  1919.  The  Blind  School  appeals  strongly  to  the 
sympathy  of  non-Christians  in  Bombay  and  receives  a  con¬ 
siderable  part  of  its  support  from  them.  No  part  of  the  run¬ 
ning  expenses  of  the  school  is  provided  by  appropriations 
from  the  Board.  Miss  Millard  has  recently  been  asked  to 
serve  on  a  commission,  appointed  by  the  Government,  to  con¬ 
sider  the  whole  question  of  defective  children. 

Miss  Emily  Bissell's  work  is  now  chiefly  writing  and 
translation,  a  work  for  which  her  rare  knowledge  of  Marathi 
as  well  as  her  fine  literary  and  musical  sense  fit  her.  Her 
third  “Book  Child,”  a  collection  of  stories,  biographies  and 
travel  talks,  has  this  summer  been  published  by  the  India 
Tract  and  Book  Society.  With  an  Indian  assistant  she  is 
also  revising  the  Marathi  hymn-book  and  painstakingly  going 
over  the  tunes,  as  well  as  the  words  of  each  hymn.  It  is 
interesting  that  as  Christianity  has  made  progress  in  India, 
the  native  church  has  not  been  dependent  upon  translations 
of  English  hymns  sung  to  English  tunes,  as  was  the  case  in 
early  years,  but  has  produced  many  composers  of  both  hymns 
and  tunes  of  its  own.  This  native  music  makes  a  very  strong 
appeal  to  non-Christians.  Miss  Bissell  earnestly  wishes  that 
she  could  respond  to  all  the  calls  to  address  companies  of 
women  who  keep  coming  to  her.  She  says:  “It  is  appalling 
to  have  to  refuse  lovely,  refined,  educated  high  caste  girls  and 
women.” 

Because  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  keenly  realizes  the  need  of  help¬ 
ing  this  class  of  India’s  women,  it  has  adopted  Miss  Lillian 
L.  Picken,  a  young  missionary  already  in  Bombay  who  feels 
especially  drawn  to  this  form  of  service.  Miss  Picken  went 
to  India  four  years  ago  to  have  charge  of  a  specially  sup¬ 
ported  English  school  for  little  boys,  but  because  of  her  long¬ 
ing  to  do  individual  work  among  the  young  women  students 
and  other  high  caste  women  of  Bombay,  she  has  resigned  that 
position.  1  he  Board  considers  itself  peculiarly  fortunate  in 
being  able  to  number  among  its  Jubilee  missionaries  one  so 
well  fitted  for  this  service  as  is  Miss  Picken.  Unfortunately 
the  mission  is  so  undermanned  at  present  that  it  has  not  been 

23 


possible  as  yet  for  Miss  Picken  to  be  released  from  school 
work. 

We  rejoice  in  the  going  to  Bombay  this  fall  of  another 
of  our  Jubilee  missionaries,  Miss  E.  Loleta  Wood  of  Sioux 
Falls,  Iowa.  Her  work,  as  soon  as  she  has  acquired  the 
Marathi  language,  will  be  the  supervision  of  the  elementary 
schools  in  Bombay. 

Of  the  work  in  the  Marathi  Mission  outside  the  city  of 
Bombay,  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  supports  “Station  Schools"  in 
Rahuri,  Vadala  and  Sholapur,  makes  a  grant  to  the  home  for 
widows  and  orphans  at  Wai,  and  also  to  certain  village 
schools,  besides  maintaining  some  fifteen  Bible  Women  who 
in  their  beneficent  ministry  go  in  and  out  among  the  homes 
in  cities  and  villages.  The  station  boarding  schools  are  largely 
for  the  children  of  Christians  and  sometimes  Christian  workers 
who  are  so  far  from  all  educational  privileges  that  their  chil¬ 
dren  would  be  left  entirely  without  training  could  they  not 
be  received  into  the  station  schools  which  are  the  connecting 
link,  between  the  primary  village  schools  and  the  higher 
boarding  schools. 

Madura  Mission 

The  most  outstanding  feature  of  our  work  in  the  Madura 
Mission  is  the  Lucy  Perry  Noble  Bible  School  at  Madura. 
This  institution  has  been  much  before  the  constituency  of  the 
Board  for  four  or  five  years  because  of  its  need  of  a  new  plant. 
The  year  1918  has  seen  the  completion  of  the  industrial  build¬ 
ing,  the  infirmary  and  a  missionary  residence,  the  last  a  bun¬ 
galow  to  be  known  as  Indiana  Hall.  The  Esther  Barton 
Assembly  Hall,  a  building  to  be  used  for  neighborhood  church 
services  and  for  large  gatherings  of  all  kinds,  is  now  in  proc¬ 
ess  of  erection.  The  industrial  school  is  self-supporting  and  is 
meeting  one  of  the  greatest  needs  of  Madura’s  women.  Stu¬ 
dents  of  all  classes  also  assist  in  cultivating  the  garden,  in 
planting  and  nurturing  trees  and  otherwise  beautifying  the 
grounds. 

The  school  year  closed  with  a  three-hour  program,  includ¬ 
ing  an  exercise  on  the  “Origins  of  the  South  India  United 
Church,"  which  those  present  found  all  too  short.  Eleven 
women  were  graduated  and  are  all  employed  in  various  parts 
of  the  Madura  and  other  missions.  These  words  quoted  from 
one  of  Miss  Swift’s  letters  are  illuminating  as  showing  what 
it  costs  to  be  a  Christian  in  India. 


24 


25 


Wingate  Hall,  Madura,  India 


“One  of  the  Hindu  women  we  have  long  been  hoping 
would  become  a  Christian  has  openly  taken  her  stand  this 
week.  There  are  the  same  difficult  circumstances  which  make 
every  such  case  a  problem,  opposition  by  her  family,  separa¬ 
tion  necessitated,  relatives  following  her  up,  the  difficulty  of 
adjustment  to  an  entirely  new  environment  and  the  necessity 
of  working  for  a  living  when  unaccustomed  to  work.” 

The  “Woman’s  Exchange,”  the  large  building  secured 
more  than  a  year  ago  as  a  center  for  Christian  work  for  women 
and  girls  of  whatever  social  station,  continues  under  Miss 
Swift’s  efficient  guidance  to  touch  many  lives.  After  writing 
of  a  large  meeting  of  non-Christian  women,  Miss  Swift  says : 
“I  am  wishing  already  that  our  hall  were  larger.  Five  hun¬ 
dred  crowd  it  and  we  have  the  crowd.  It  would  convey  a 
false  impression  to  say  they  were  there  because  athirst  for 
the  Gospel.  They  were  there  because  we  had  a  cinema — such 
a  poor  one !  This  coming  to  meetings  is  quite  a  new  thing. 
There  were  Marathi  women  who  never  go  out  as  a  rule — 
purdahism — and  Brahmin  women  terribly  afraid  that  some 
one  would  touch  them  in  the  crush.  As  I  stand  at  the  door  to 
receive  or  send  them  forth,  I  have  a  word  from  scores  of  them 
testifying  to  their  belief  in  Christ.  Last  night  a  tall,  dark 
woman  swept  in  and  brought  up  suddenly  beside  me  in  the 
darkness  with  the  words  ‘Since  I  was  a  girl  my  meditation 
has  been  upon  Jesus  Christ.’” 

ARUPPUKOTTAI 

Under  Miss  Quickenden’s  supervision  twenty  Bible 
Women  have  been  at  work  in  the  Aruppukottai  field.  Nine 
hundred  and  thirty-three  women  have  been  under  the  regular 
instruction  of  these  twenty  workers  and  Miss  Quickenden 
estimates  that  not  less  than  42,618  others  have  through  them 
had  a  less  close  touch  with  Christianity.  One  great  difficulty' 
in  the  work  of  the  village  Bible  Women  is  to  find  a  suitable 
place  for  them  to  live.  It  is  very  easy  for  a  man  of  influence, 
unfriendly  to  Christianity,  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  Bible 
Woman  to  stay  by  simply  seeing  to  it  that  no  one  rents  her 
a  room.  In  one  village  a  man  gave  the  newly  arrived  Bible 
Woman  the  names  of  ten  women  who  he  said  might  like  to 
study.  When  she  painstakingly  hunted  them  up  she  found 
them  all  to  be  old,  old  women.  He  had  been  making  fun  of 
her.  However,  she  found  pupils  in  his  caste;  he  watched  her, 
became  interested  and  finally  himself  became  a  regular  attend- 

26 


ant  at  the  church  service  and  joined  the  night  school  where 
at  last  report  he  was  eagerly  learning  to  read.  His  two  little 
daughters  were  also  in  the  'Hindu  Girls’  Day  School. 

The  station  boarding  schools  throughout  this  mission  are 
greatly  in  need  of  new  buildings  as  nearly  all  are  housed  in 
buildings  erected  fifty  to  eighty  years  ago.  The  conditions 
in  Dindigul  as  described  by  Mrs.  Elwood  are  typical  of  those 
existing  in  most  of  the  other  schools  also.  She  says:  “Every 
roof  leaks  like  a  sieve  and  the  girls  have  been  sleeping  on  wet 
floors.  We  could  not  have  this  so  we  undertook  repairs. 
We  soon  found  we  were  in  for  a  much  bigger  job  than  we 
anticipated  for  beams  and  rafters  and  veranda  pillars  were 
simply  eaten  into  pith  by  the  white  ants.”  But  the  buildings 
are  not  only  old  but  very  inadequate  at  best.  Mrs.  Elwood 
continues:  “We  have  twenty-four  girls  crowded  at  night  into 
a  room  27x8  feet.  They  lie  so  close  together  that  one  turn¬ 
ing  over  rolls  against  the  next  one.  In  a  room  8x8  feet  (no 
larger  than  a  prison  cell)  we  have  two  teachers  and  two  girls. 
Now  do  you  wonder  that  when  an  epidemic  breaks  out,  it 
goes  through  the  whole  company  of  those  who  have  not  had 
the  disease?  We  have  just  had  such  a  time  with  mumps. 
We  have  no  proper  sick  room  and  there  is  no  possibility  of 
segregation.  A  few  years  ago  when  an  epidemic  of  cholera 
broke  out  six  children  died  before  the  school  could  be  closed 
and  the  children  sent  home.  A  few  days  ago  a  specialist 
appointed  by  the  government  to  inspect  health  conditions  in 
the  Madras  Presidency  examined  forty-eight  of  our  boarding 
school  children  and  found  every  one  infected  with  hook-worm. 
I  asked  the  doctor  what  we  could  do  to  help  them  and  he 
replied  that  it  would  be  a  waste  of  money  to  give  medicine 
until  we  provided  more  sanitary  conditions.” 

It  is  impossible  for  us  to  refuse  to  meet  the  challenge  of 
such  a  need  as  this  and  we  rejoice  that  our  Jubilee  Building 
Fund  has  already  provided  a  small  part  of  the  sum  needed. 
To  furnish  suitable  buildings  for  others  of  these  schools  will 
be  a  part  of  our  post- Jubilee  task. 


27 


AFRICA 

WEST  CENTRAL  AFRICA  MISSION — Bailundo — Schools — Miss  Emma  C. 

Redick. 

Nursing-  and  Literary  Work — Miss  Helen  H.  Stover. 

Bondi — Girls'  Training  School — Mrs.  M.  M.  Webster,  Miss  Leona  V. 

Stukey. 

Ochileso — Schools — Miss  Janette  E.  Miller. 

The  continent  of  Africa  is  so  vast  that  every  degree  of 
social  order  from  the  pagan  in  his  kraal  to  leaders  in  building 
colonial  empires  is  found  among  its  races  and  peoples. 

Our  own  W.  B.  M.  I.  sphere  of  influence  in  the  Dark 
Continent  is  the  West  Central  Africa  mission,  in  the  “zone 
of  pagan  supremacy."  In  this  section  live  some  40,000,000 
natives.  Each  native  village  is  an  epitome  of  the  African 
world.  The  100  or  more  huts  are  constructed  of  palm  sticks 
and  leaves  and  the  door  is  low.  Often  as  many  as  one-third 
of  the  inhabitants  are  slaves.  The  women  live  on  a  plane  of 
degradation  far  below  the  men.  Polygamy  is  universal,  im¬ 
morality  a  commonplace.  The  most  brutal  elements  in  the 
nature  of  the  people  come  out  in  connection  with  their 
religion.  An  innumerable  company  of  demons  envelop  them 
on  every  side,  “demons  in  the  stones  of  the  brook,  demons 
along  the  forest  path,  demons  in  the  people  one  meets.  The 
African  never  escapes  from  the  terror  of  his  supernatural 
world."  Many  foul  customs  are  attached  to  funeral  cere¬ 
monies. 

No  educational  opportunities  whatever  are  open  to  the 
native  except  those  provided  by  the  mission.  As  soon  as 
some  desire  to  know  Christianity  is  aroused  in  a  community, 
an  out-station  school  is  started  and  an  effort  made  to  instruct 
the  women.  Teachers  for  these  very  primary  schools  are 
trained  in  the  station  schools  which  are  theroretically  at  least 
secondary  schools  and  receive  only  pupils  who  have  had  some 
primary  work  in  out-stations. 

BAILUNDO 

Miss  Redick  reports  four  distinct  departments  in  the 
school  at  Bailundo;  the  kindergarten,  the  primary  school,  the 
secondary  grades,  and  the  advanced  class  of  fifteen  chosen 
pupils  preparing  for  the  higher  training  in  the  Institute  at 
Dondi,  a  total  enrollment  of  256.  The  war  has  caused  such  a 
scarcity  of  cloth-  as  to  interfere  with  the  teaching  of  sewing 
but  the  children  all  help  in  the  school  garden  and  learn  to  do 
clay  modeling.  A  flag  drill  which  thrilled  the  onlookers  was  a 

28 


feature  of  the  closing  exercises  of  the  school  year.  The 
children  are  collecting  money  for  a  school  organ  and  the 
dropping  of  their  pennies  for  this  object  was  another  absorb¬ 
ingly  interesting  feature  of  the  great  day.  1  he  new  kinder¬ 
garten  is  the  first  building  erected  in  Bailundo  under  govern¬ 
ment  license  and  with  sawn  plates  and  rafters. 

A  summer  school  is  held  for  out-station  workers.  Miss 
vStover  has  charge  of  the  Bible  teaching  and  a  native  assistant 
gives  lessons  in  the  common  branches. 

o 

As  the  reading  public  is  constantly  increasing  there  is 
more  and  more  demand  for  the  output  of  the  mission  press. 
Miss  Stover  varies  her  service  as  a  nurse,  dispensing  medi¬ 
cines  and  caring  for  the  sick,  with  translation  and  literary 
work.  Born  and  bred  among  them,  the  people  have  a  peculiar 
love  for  her,  and  her  influence  in  causing  them  to  abandon 
heathen  superstitions  and  gruesome  practices  is  truly 
marvelous. 

OCHIL.ESO 

Miss  Miller  with  her  100  boys  and  a  half  hundred  girls 
spends  from  eight  to  ten  hours  daily  in  the  school  room  and 
tries  to  get  time  for  the  Principal’s  executive  duties  and  for 
her  correspondence  in  the  evening  or  the  early  morning  hours. 
Once  in  three  months  she  gathers  in  the  out-station  teachers 
for  the  discussion  of  problems  and  consideration  of  reports. 

DONDI 

The  long-hoped  for  Training  School  for  girls  was  opened 
in  Dondi  in  1916.  The  task  set  this  youngest  of  all  the  W.  B. 
M.  I.  schools  is  the  training  of  leaders  for  West  Central 
Africa’s  womanhood.  The  students  are  picked  girls  from  the 
various  station  schools.  They  must  be  taught  not  only  the 
usual  school  subjects  but  how  to  become  cleanly  and  intelli¬ 
gent  housekeepers  and  how  to  do  with  efficiency  and  success 
the  field  work  which  for  many  years  to  come  must  still  make 
a  part  of  the  life  of  African  women.  The  afternoons  of  the 
girls  in  our  Dondi  Training  School  are  therefore  devoted  to 
their  garden  and  fields  and  the  crops  harvested  go  a  long 
way  toward  paying  the  expenses  of  their  living. 

Sewing  and  basketry — the  “ African  woman’s  fancy  work” 
— are  also  taught.  Mrs.  Webster,  the  mother  superior  of  the 
school,  writes  of  the  good  comradeship  existing  among  the 
girls  and  of  their  eagerness  to  learn  that  they  may  later  serve. 

29 


We  rejoice  in  the  sailing  a  few  weeks  ago  of  Miss  Leona 
V.  Stukey  of  Steamboat  Springs,  Colorado,  to  be  Mrs.  Web¬ 
ster’s  co-worker  in  this  significant  school  of  West  Africa. 

The  constantly  recurring  theme  in  the  letters  and  reports 
from  West  Africa  is  the  under-staffed  condition  in  which  the 
mission  is  facing  increased  opportunity.  Ochileso  with  its 
twenty-one  out-stations,  two  boarding  schools  and  a  growing 
church  has  had  just  two  missionaries  and  there  would  have 
been  no  woman  at  all  had  not  our  own  Miss  Miller  remained 
till  long  past  her  furlough  time.  Four  of  the  six  stations  of 
the  mission  are  asking  urgently  for  two  new  women  each,  the 
fifth  asks  for  one  and  the  sixth,  the  Training  School  at  Dondi, 
asks  for  one  teacher  in  addition  to  Miss  Stukey  who  has 
recently  sailed. 

What  shall  be  the  response  of  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  in  this  its 
Jubilee  year  to  the  cry  of  our  African  sisters? 

An  old  woman  recently  said  to  one  of  the  missionary 
women,  “The  Word  of  God  has  driven  the  spirits  away." 
“Great  Pan  is  dead,”  exclaims  the  missionary,  “this  is  a  mat¬ 
ter  for  rejoicing  but  it  is  also  a  cause  for  anxiety.  If  the  house 
remains  empty,  swept  and  garnished,  other  evil  spirits  will 
enter  and  take  possession.” 


MEXICO 

HERMOSILLiO- — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Nellie  O.  Prescott,  Miss 
Lora  Frances  Smith,  Mrs.  Jessie  Bissell  Crawford. 

The  American  Board  and  other  mission  boards  in  Mexico 
have  this  year  worked  out  an  agreement  in  accordance  with 
which  each  shall  have  its  own  well  defined  field.  As  our  work 
falls  in  the  five  states  to  the  west  and  north,  Chihuahua  has 
been  transferred  to  the  Methodist  Board  South,  and  with  it 
goes  our  W.  B.  M.  I.  school  in  Parral. 

HERMOSILLO 

The  Instituto  Corona  in  Hermosillo  has  this  year  for  the 
first  time  been  well  housed.  The  rented  house  stands  on  a 
large  lot  in  the  midst  of  orange  and  shade  trees,  palms  and 
flowering  shrubs.  Its  rooms  built  around  an  open  patio,  with 
wide  interior  corridors  has  made  a  much  more  comfortable 
home  for  school  and  missionaries  than  was  the  dilapidated  mis¬ 
sion  house.  During  the  year  seventy-four  pupils  including 
kindergarten  children  were  enrolled.  The  work  covered  the 
first  six  grades.  The  school  has  complied  with  the  govern- 

30 


ment  regulation  forbidding  the  teaching  of  religion,  but  the 
teachers  have  met  for  a  brief  prayer  service  each  day  at  noon 
and  the  story  hour  has  furnished  opportunity  for  the  teaching 
of  Bible  stories  and  temperance  lessons. 

Miss  Smith's  absence  from  her  work  for  the  present  year 
because  of  the  needs  of  her  family  is  a  great  blow  to  the  school, 
but  Miss  Prescott  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Fritts  are  proving  them¬ 
selves  friends  in  need  and  the  opening  has  been  encouraging. 

Miss  Jessie  Bissell,  detained  from  returning  to  her  post 
because  of  a  difficulty  in  regard  to  her  passport,  was  married 
in  September  to  Mr.  Cedric  C.  Crawford  of  the  United  States 
Navy.  She  hopes  soon  to  be  able  to  return  to  Mexico. 

MICRONESIA 

JAtiUIT — Touring-  and  Schools — Miss  Jessie  R.  Hoppin. 

Letters  from  our  work  in  the  far  away  islands  of  the 
Pacific  have  been  very  infrequent  during  the  entire  period  of 
the  war.  The  Japanese  government,  under  whose  control  the 
islands  now  are,  has  shown  the  missionaries  many  kindnesses, 
enabling  them  to  get  needed  supplies  and  allowing  schools 
and  other  work  to  go  forward  uninterruptedly. 

Miss  Hoppin 's  friends  hope  to  welcome  her  home  on  fur¬ 
lough  when  the  war  is  over. 

THE  BALKAN  STATES 

BULGARIA — Samokov — Girls’  Boarding-  School — Miss  Inez  L.  Abbott, 
Miss  Edith  L.  Douglass. 

Evangelistic — Miss  Agnes  M.  Baird. 

Sofia — Evangelistic — Miss  Mary  M.  Haskell. 

SERBIA — Monmtir — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Delpha  Davis. 

The  Balkan  Mission,  though  formerly  all  included  within 
European  Turkey,  now  embraces  stations  in  Bulgaria,  Serbia, 
Greece  and  Albania.  It  has,  therefore,  through  the  years  of 
the  world  war  been  a  house  divided  against  itself  and  meet¬ 
ings  or  conferences  of  the  mission  as  a  whole  have  been 
impossible. 

Bulgaria 

That  Bulgaria  entered  the  war  on  the  side  of  the  Central 
Powers  was  a  distinct  disappointment  to  those  interested  in 
mission  work  in  that  country.  Interesting  as  would  be  an 
analysis  of  the  causes  for  her  doing  so,  we  will  here  attempt 
only  to  call  attention  to  some  of  the  significant  facts  now 

31 


becoming  increasingly  evident  since  Bulgaria’s  surrender  to 
the  Allies  on  September  30th. 

Bulgaria  has  never  been  under  the  control  of  Germany 
in  any  such  way  as  Turkey,  and  has  steadily  resisted  tremen¬ 
dous  pressure  on  the  part  of  Germany  in  order  to  preserve 
diplomatic  relations  with  America. 

The  people  of  Bulgaria  have  always  cherished  and  today 
continue  to  cherish  sentiments  of  gratitude  and  affection  for 
America  and  they  desire  to  pattern  their  political  institutions 
after  our  models. 

Throughout  the  war  the  Bulgarian  government  has  not 
only  treated  with  the  utmost  fairness  all  Americans  within  its 
borders  but  has  shown  especial  friendliness  to  American  mis¬ 
sionaries  and  mission  institutions.  It  was  Bulgarian  officials 
that  made  it  possible  for  Dr.  Mary  Mills  Patrick,  president 
of  the  American  College  for  Women  in  Constantinople,  to 
secure  permission  from  Austria  to  pass  from  Switzerland  to 
Constantinople  through  that  country. 

For  two  years  past  Bulgarian  officials  have  made  it  pos¬ 
sible  for  the  boarding  schools  in  Samokov  to  secure  food  and 
fuel  in  ample  quantities,  whereas  had  they  been  unfriendly 
the  schools  must  have  closed  from  lack  of  these  necessities. 

SAMOKOV 

Throughout  the  years  of  war  our  Boarding  School  for 
Girls  has  done  much  more  than  hold  its  own.  The  teaching 
staff  today  is  larger  and  better  trained,  and  the  students  are 
more  numerous  and  from  a  higher  class  of  homes  than  four 
years  ago.  Because  of  Miss  Abbot’s  enforced  absence,  Rev. 
Reuben  H.  Markham  has  acted  as  principal  of  the  school, 
while  Mrs.  Markham  accepted  the  responsible  position  of 
matron  and  both  literally  threw  in  their  lot  with  that  of  the 
school,  eating  at  the  same  table  and  accepting  for  themselves 
and  children  no  comforts  or  luxuries  which  the  girls  could 
not  share.  What  problems  and  sacrifices  this  service  involved 
can  be  at  least  partially  understood  when  one  knows  that  last 
winter  wood  cost  three  times  its  normal  price,  meat  and  flour 
four  times  and  butter  and  kerosene  ten  times  their  normal 
prices.  Tuition  and  board  were  raised  to  what  seemed  pro¬ 
hibitive  prices,  but  pupils  came  in  such  numbers  that  no  room 
in  the  school  could  hold  them  at  one  time  and  the  140  day 
pupils  have  held  their  devotional  exercises  in  the  morning  and 
the  100  boarders  theirs  in  the  evening.  Why  is  it  that  in 

3? 


• 

such  awful  times  Bulgarian  parents  are  with  the  greatest  self- 
sacrifice  thus  keeping  their  girls  in  our  schools?  It  is  because 
they  like  the  product  of  the  school.  Dotted  all  over  the  coun¬ 
try  arc  women  and  girls  trained  in  Samokov,  1,500  and  more 
of  them,  and  they  are  making  good.  They  are  home-makers, 
teachers,  social  service  workers  and  everywhere  leaders. 

The  significance  of  our  work  appears  when  a  war  corre¬ 
spondent  of  the  Chicago  Evening  Post  exclaims,  “It  is  Bibles 
not  bullets  that  whipped  Bulgaria."  We  in  turn  must  now 
be  ready  to  provide  largely  increased  appropriations  for  the 
school,  and  also  the  new  plant  so  long  needed. 


Miss  Rada  Pavlova 


Serbia 

MONASTIR 

Has  suffered  from  the  coming 
and  going  of  armies,  from  bombs, 
and  from  shells  rained  down  by 
overhanging  Zeppelins.  It  has  not 
been  possible  to  keep  our  school  in 
session,  but  throughout  all  the  ter¬ 
rible  months  and  years,  Miss  Mat¬ 
thews  has  had  with  her  in  the  school 
home  a  little  band  of  orphan  chil¬ 
dren  and  a  few  families  of  her 
faithful  Christian  helpers.  Latterly 
she  has  been  able  to  render  an 
especially  valuable  piece  of  work  in 
acting  as  a  medium  of  communica¬ 
tion  between  men  in  America,  and 
their  helpless  families  in  Monastir. 
The  men  can  send  money  and  mes¬ 
sages  to  Miss  Mathews  and  she  in 
turn  takes  these  freely  to  the 
stricken  homes  which  must  other¬ 
wise  succumb  to  the  horrors  of 
starvation. 

Though  herself  sharing  the  hard¬ 
ships  of  a  war-straightened  city 
and  though  not  entirely  escaping 
rheumatism,  and  other  ills  attend¬ 
ant  upon  long  living  in  basement 
shelters  and  insufficient  food,  Miss 
Matthews  has  again  and  again  ex- 

33 


pressed  her  gratitude  that  she  could  be  in  Monastir  and  serve 
in  this  time  of  need. 

Miss  Delpha  Davis  is  still  in  Phoenix,  Arizona,  slowly 
recovering  the  young  strength  and  health  she  sacrificed  for 
the  sake  of  the  Monastir  School  during  the  strain  of  the 
Balkan  Wars. 

Miss  Rada  Pavlova,  the  Bulgarian  educator  who  has 
greatly  endeared  herself  to  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  constituency  the 
past  two  years,  belongs  also  to  this  school. 

Greece 

In  Salonica  the  W.  B.  M.  I.  has  a  truly  “war  child." 
With  the  beginning  of  the  war  ordinary  missionary  work  was 
interrupted  and  feeling  between  different  races  was  acute. 
School-less  children  were  everywhere  but  a  Bulgarian  school, 
or  a  Greek  school,  or  a  Serbian  school  was  out  of  the  ques¬ 
tion  ;  possibly  an  American  school  might  be  welcomed.  Ac¬ 
cordingly  such  a  school  was  opened  in  December,  1914,  with 
five  pupils.  Numbers  increased  somewhat  but  it  was  not  till 
the  landing  of  the  British  troops  late  in  1915  that  the  success 
of  the  school  was  assured.  With  the  coming  of  the  British 
soldiers,  the  people  suddenly  felt  the  need  of  the  English 
language  and  more  children  appeared  than  could  be  cared  for, 
parents  urging  the  missionary  to  take  "just  one  more."  It 
was  very  difficult  to  secure  suitable  teachers,  the  political 
future  of  the  city  was  in  the  balance  from  day  to  day,  and 
the  attitude  of  the  local  officials  was  problematic ;  the  school 
was  entirely  without  equipment,  the  desks  for  the  children 
were  rough  benches  put  together  by  a  versatile  Bulgarian 
pastor  from  Nestle  milk  boxes  begged  of  the  British;  books 
ordered  from  Boston  failed  to  arrive;  routine  work  was  inter¬ 
fered  with  by  Zeppelins  sailing  overhead  and  dropping  bombs, 
and  a  destructive  fire  swept  the  city  in  the  summer  of  1917, 
but  in  spite  of  all  the  school  grew  and  it  now  numbers  170 
pupils.  Mr.  Brewster  says  there  might  easily  be  1,000  if  only 
there  were  room  and  teachers.  The  desire  to  learn  English 
is  still  the  great  drawing  card  but  incidentally  the  boys  and 
girls  are  getting  the  best  training  in  Christian  character  while 
through  the  entrance  the  school  gives  into  all  homes  it  is 
proving  the  best  of  missionary  agencies.  Already  the  call  is 
urgently  before  us  not  only  for  a  missionary  who  shall  give 

34 


her  entire  time  to  the  school  and  develop  a  boarding  depart¬ 
ment  for  girls,  but  also  for  money  to  purchase  land  and  erect 
permanent  buildings. 

As  we  think  of  the  growth  of  this  little  school  placing  its 
beneficent  touch  upon  the  lives  of  children  and  their  parents 
in  one  war  center  throughout  these  four  terrible  years  of 
bloodshed  and  destruction,  we  can  but  reverently  say  with 
George  Matheson, 

“And  from  the  ground  there  blossoms  red 
Life  that  shall  endless  be." 

TURKEY 

WESTERN  TURKEY  MISSION — Constantinople — Gedik  Pasha  School — 
Mrs.  Etta  D.  Marden,  Miss  Anna  B.  Jones. 

Smyrna — International  Collegiate  Institute — Miss  Minnie  B.  Mills. 

Marsovan — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Charlotte  Willard. 

Talas — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Stella  N.  Loughridge,  Miss 
Susan  W.  Orvis. 

CENTRAL  TURKEY  MISSION — Aclana — Seminary — Miss  Mary  G.  Webb, 
Miss  Grace  Towner. 

Evangelistic- — Miss  Elizabeth  S.  Webb. 

Hadjin — Girls’  Boarding  School— Miss  Olive  M.  Vaughan,  Miss  Edith 
Cold. 

Mar  ash — Central  Turkey  Girls’  College — Miss  Kate  E.  Ainslie,  Miss 
Bessie  M.  Hardy. 

EASTERN  TURKEY  MISSION — Erzroom — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss 
Ruth  M.  Bushnell,  Miss  Vina  M.  Sherman. 

Mardin — Girls’  Boarding  School — Miss  Agnes  Fenenga. 

Kindergarten — Miss  Johanna  L.  Graf. 

Since  1914  it  has  been  impossible  to  hear  freely  from  our 
workers  in  the  Turkish  Empire.  For  four  long  years  they 
have  lived  in  the  midst  of  massacre,  devastation  of  homes, 
unbelievable  poverty  and  misery,  fear  and  epidemic  of  cholera 
and  typhus.  During  the  last  year,  each  succeeding  month 
has  made  it  more  evident  that  the  people  of  Turkey,  Moslems 
as  well  as  Christians,  are  weary  of  their  German  masters  and 
as  these  words  are  written  the  world  is  rejoicing  in  the  com¬ 
plete  surrender  of  Turkey  to  the  Allies.  We  cannot  yet 
answer  the  question — "What  next  in  Turkey?” — but  through 
the  veil  imposed  by  war  restrictions  we  already  see  the  glim¬ 
merings  of  the  dawn  of  a  better  day. 

In  almost  every  center  local  officials  have  been  friendly 
to  Americans.  A  varied  relief  work  has  been  done  wherever 
missionaries  are  found  and  through  this  the  influence  of  the 
missionary  has  been  strengthened  among  all  classes  and  races. 

35 


In  Constantinople,  which  has  been  practically  a  German 
city  since  the  beginning  of  the  war,  both  the  American  col¬ 
leges  have  continued  their  work  with  large  numbers  of 
students. 

Of  the  sixteen  W.  B.  M.  I.  missionaries  who  belong 
within  the  Turkish  Empire,  seven  are  today  at  their  posts. 
The  school  in  Gedik  Pasha  is  crowded  to  its  capacity  with 
eager  boys  and  girls,  a  large  percent  of  whom  are  Turks,  and 
Miss  Jones  and  her  associates  find  their  hands  very  full  with 
the  training  of  these  who  are  soon  to  be  the  leaders  of  a  new 
Turkey.  They  nevertheless  find  time  to  visit  the  homes  of  the 
sorrowing  round  about  them  and  to  give  out  needle  work  to 
the  women  who  only  thus  can  keep  themselves  and  their 
little  ones  alive. 

SMYRNA 

The  Collegiate  Institute  in  Smyrna  is  another  of  the 
schools  whose  work  has  gone  on  uninterruptedly  and  with 
ever  widening  influence  in  spite  of  many  restrictions  and  diffi¬ 
culties.  The  pupils  are  largely  Greeks  though  there  are  also 
Turks  and  Armenians  and  probably  the  daughters  of  some 
English  and  Italians  interned  in  the  country. 

The  school  girls  as  well  as  teachers  all  help  in  relief  work 
and  the  daily  routine  of  school  life  is  doing  more  than  we  can 
estimate  in  maintaining  the  morale  of  the  pupils  and  of  the 
homes  from  which  they  come.  The  picture  of  the  mission¬ 
aries  coming  together  for  a  little  surprise  party  for  Miss  Mills 
on  her  birthday  indicates  that  life  even  in  Turkey  in  war 
time  is  not  all  sad  or  devoid  of  occasional  relaxation. 

MAR SO VAN 

The  storm  that  closed  the  girls’  school  and  seized  the 
mission  buildings  in  Marsovan  seems  to  be  overpast  and  what 
was  apparently  a  very  successful  year  of  school  work  was 
completed  by  graduation  exercises  on  May  30.  An  associate 
writes  of  Miss  Willard  :  “She  has  been  very  brave  and  has 
carried  through  the  year’s  work  as  planned  before  Miss  Gage 
left  us,  one  year  ago  today.”  Of  the  Commencement  exer¬ 
cises  he  says:  “Our  small  audience  hall  was.  crowded  to  its 
utmost  capacity.  Some  300  specially  invited  guests  witnessed 
our  one  Tweet  girl  graduate’  take  her  diploma.  Local  offi¬ 
cials  honored  us  with  their  presence  and  delivered  addresses.” 
The  school  family  for  the  summer  was  to  consist  of  twenty- 

36 


five  teachers  and  girls.  A  part  of  their  summer  work  was 
the  making  of  garments  for  the  children  of  the  hospital 
orphanage.  Miss  Willard  says:  “We  are  thankful  for  health 
and  for  work.” 


ADAlVA 

The  building  of  Adana  Seminary  was  taken  over  by  the 
government  for  hospital  purposes  in  the  early  spring  of  1918 
and  the  school  finished  its  year  in  the  old  hospital  building. 
Apparently  this  too  has  now  been  taken  for  Miss  Towner 
writes:  “I  will  not  be  in  regular  school  work  this  next  year 
but  I  hope  to  have  private  pupils.”  Miss  Kyriakidis,  for 
many  years  the  faithful  Greek  teacher  of  the  school,  is  with 
her  and  will  also  give  lessons.  Miss  Towner  asks  for  assur¬ 
ance  that  the  Board  will  stand  behind  them  financially  as  well 
as  morally  saying  that  Miss  Kyriakidis’  former  salary  will 
now  be  but  “a  drop  in  the  bucket”  and  that  her  own  salary 
will  cover  but  one-third  of  her  living  expenses. 

HADJIN 

Miss  Vaughan,  alone  in  Hadjin  since  the  fall  of  1915  so 
far  as  American  companionship  is  concerned,  writes  of  her 
calls  upon  the  families  of  Turkish  officials  at  the  time  of  the 
feast  of  Ramazan,  of  beans  and  squash  from  their  garden 
“which  makes  easier  the  provisioning  of  the  school  family,” 
of  the  school  girls  making  syrup  from  mulberries  and  grinding 
their  own  wheat  into  flour  and  boolghoor,  of  the  hope  for  a 
good  grape  crop,  and  of  the  two  horses  belonging  to  the 
school  “threshing  the  barley  from  our  little  field”  and  bringing 
needed  wool,  hay  and  straw. 

MARASH 

Very  little  has  come  through  from  Marash  but  the  im- 

J  o 

pression  received  is  that  work  has  been  but  little  interfered 
with.  Apparently  the  school  girls  who  made  up  the  college 
family  in  1914  have  been  allowed  to  remain  in  the  safe  shelter 
of  the  school  through  these  four  years  and  class  work  has 
never  been  wholly  interrupted.  The  missionary  circle  now 
in  Marash  numbers  nine  adults  and  four  children,  the  last  a 
baby  daughter  born  to  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Woodley  last  spring. 
Local  officials  are  friendly  and  many  of  the  usual  missionary 
activities  as  well  as  much  relief  work  have  been  kept  up. 
Miss  Hardy’s  music  is  proving  the  fabled  sesame  to  open 
many  Moslem  homes. 


37 


MARDIN 


On  the  border  of  Arabia  seems  to  be  sharing  in  the  hope 
of  the  better  day  already  dawning  for  the  latter  country  and 
in  the  inspiration  of  the  successes  of  the  British  forces  in 
Palestine  and  Mesopotamia.  Three  women  make  up  the  mis¬ 
sionary  circle  in  this  far  out-post,  one  of  them  our  own  Miss 
Graf  from  whom  no  direct  word  has  come  for  many  months. 

As  we  go  through  the  list  of  these  ambassadors  of  ours 
in  Turkey  we  salute  each  one  as  truly  a  heroine.  For  four 
long  years  cut  off  from  communication  with  the  outside  world, 
without  home  letters,  unable  to  replenish  their  wardrobes 
or  their  larders  from  customary  sources,  dependent  upon 
vague  rumors  or  garbled  Turkish  reports  for  their  knowledge 
of  the  great  world  happenings,  they  are  still  cheerful  and 
strong,  inspiring  starving  women  and  children  about  them  to 
struggle  toward  a  self-respecting  independence  and  constantly 
gaining  in  influence  with  the  Turks  as  well  as  with  Christians. 

No  pomp  of  war  heralds  their  service  but  it  is  our  mis¬ 
sionary  women  and  their  fellow-workers  who  are  making 
leaders  ready  to  “carry  on”  when  the  new  day  of  liberty  and 
hope  breaks  upon  the  land  so  long  oppressed  by  Turkish 
misrule. 

Of  our  Turkey  missionaries  detained  in  this  country  on 
account  of  the  war  not  one  is  idle.  Mrs.  Marden,  the  Misses 

Webb,  Miss  Fenenga,  and  Miss  Cold  have  en¬ 
deared  themselves  and  commended  their  work 
to  the  many  who  have  listened  to  their  speaking. 
Miss  Sherman  has  regained  her  strength  after  a 
serious  operation  a  year  ago  and  is  now  a  pastor’s 
assistant  in  Central  Church, Topeka.  Miss  Lough- 
ridge  after  some  months  of  study  in  the  Univer¬ 
sities  of  Nebraska  and  Chicago  is  now  teaching 
in  Talladega  College.  Miss  Bushnell  is  teaching 
in  Pomona,  California ;  Miss  Harriet  J.  Fischer 
was  happily  married  in  June  to  Rev.  Paul  Nilson 
and  both  were  about  starting  for  South  Africa  to 
help  mission  work  there  when  recent  events 
have  made  a  possible  return  to  Turkey  seem 
near  at  hand.  Miss  Ainslie  after  a  period  of 
study  in  the  University  of  California  accepted  a  position  as 
teacher  of  English  in  a  provincial  High  School  for  boys  in 
Mitajiri,  Japan.  There  are  some  400  boys  and  over  twenty 

38 


teachers  in  the  school  and  she  says:  “My  work  is  to  make 
them  proficient  in  understanding  and  speaking  English !” 

Miss  Orvis  was  a  member  of  the  party  of  missionaries 
who  started  in  July,  1917,  for  southwestern  Russia  to  do  relief 
work.  After  many  vicissitudes  of  travel  she  reached  Alex- 
andropol  where  she  found  the  people  in  appalling  need.  By 
almost  superhuman  effort  she  succeeded  in  obtaining  daily 
and  in  sterilizing  milk  enough  to  keep  alive  300  babies  that 
must  otherwise  have  perished.  She  built  a  soup  kitchen  from 
a  pile  of  mud  and  bricks  left  by  retreating  Russian  soldiers 
which  enabled  her  to  feed  each  day  some  2,000  people,  many 
of  them  women  who  came  long  distances  to  obtain  work  to 
keep  them  and  their  children  from  starving.  As  political  con¬ 
ditions  became  worse  and  worse  in  the  spring,  Miss  Orvis  in 
common  with  other  Americans  was  obliged  to  leave  Russia 
but  fortunately  it  is  still  possible  to  get  money  to  Alex- 
andropol  and  the  beneficent  work  she  organized  is  being  con¬ 
tinued  by  Armenians  trained  in  the  mission  schools  of  Turkey. 

For  the  blessing  of  God  which  has  rested  so  abundantly 
upon  the  work  of  the  past  fifty  years  we  are  humbly  thankful. 
Forces  have  been  put  into  action  the  results  of  which  can  be 
fully  determined  only  in  eternity.  But  we  have  not  come  to 
a  resting  place. 

At  the  beginning  of  our  second  half-century  we  are  living 
in  a  world  whose  standards  and  valuations  are  undergoing 
unprecedented  change.  Four  years  of  war  have  led  people  to 
attach  a  new  and  different  meaning  to  such  words  as  neigh¬ 
borliness,  happiness,  worth,  life. 

We  are  beginning  to  see  that  America  cannot  be  safe  so 
long  as  China  is  corrupt ;  that  it  brings  greater  happiness  to 
serve  than  to  be  served ;  that  labor  and  suffering  in  a  worth¬ 
while  cause  are  a  joy  rather  than  a  curse;  that  death  itself 
is  not  the  final  evil ;  and  that  life  is  given  us  not  for  the  pur¬ 
pose  of  getting  and  having  but  to  invest  in  great  and  worthy 
causes. 

All  this  relates  itself  at  once  to  missionary  work.  It 
means  that  the  non-Christian  peoples  are  more  ready  to  re¬ 
ceive  the  message  than  ever  before  and  that  the  women  of 
the  American  churches  are  more  ready  to  recognize  and  seize 
the  opportunities  to  serve  them. 

There  is  an  immediate  call  for  much  larger  sums  of  money 
than  ever  before.  Because  of  war  conditions  the  administra- 


39 


tion  of  established  work  is  already  costing  far  more  than  in 
ordinary  times. 

There  is  the  further  call  for  reaching  out  to  new  work. 
Three  such  needs  now  definitely  before  us  have  been  referred 
to  in  these  pages.  The  new  school  in  Kien  Ning  must  have 
an  additional  missionary  and  $300  for  its  running  expenses  and 
cannot  long  wait  for  the  larger  amount  with  which  a  perma¬ 
nent  home  can  be  provided. 

The  Salonica  school  should  be  put  on  a  permanent  basis 
and  this  means  the  purchase  of  land,  the  erection  of  a  build¬ 
ing,  and  the  sending  of  a  missionary  in  addition  to  a  larger 
amount  for  running  expenses. 

Reconstruction  work  in  Turkey  and  the  Balkans  is  to  be 
begun  immediately.  The  Armenian-Syrian  Relief  Committee 
is  now  sending  a  commission  into  Turkey  the  clyief  purpose 
being  to  study  conditions  and  determine  the  most  effective 
centers  of  work.  With  them  will  go  most  of  the  experienced 
missionaries  now  in  this  country.  By  next  summer  at  least 
a  part  of  our  twenty-five  new  workers  should  be  ready  to  start. 

Any  of  these  lines  of  work  offers  an  opportunity  for  an 
investment  of  both  life  and  money  simply  irresistible  to  one 
who  fairly  sees  it. 

The  young  women  in  college  or  just  out  are  getting  the 
vision  and  are  ready  to  invest  their  lives.  Could  one  whose 
gift  must  be  of  money  rather  than  of  life  experience  a  greater 
joy  than  through  making  it  possible  for  the  needed  teacher 
to  go  to  Salonica  and  put  upon  a  permanent  basis  the  school 
that  has  grown  up  there  during  the  war?  Or  those  thousands 
of  orphan  children  and  hopeless  women  in  Turkey;  of  Chris¬ 
tian  girls  and  young  women  shut  up  in  Moslem  harems.  To 
be  able  to  send  forth  a  strong  young  woman  to  bring  to  them 
a  message  of  hope — could  any  investment  be  more  worth 
while  ? 

There  are  many  indications  that  the  years  immediately 
following  the  war  are  to  be  momentous  years  in  the  great  en¬ 
terprise  of  world  missions.  Other  denominations  are  recog¬ 
nizing  this  and  are  marshalling  their  forces  of  men  and  money. 
The  American  Board  is  planning  larger  things. 

The  W.  B.  M.  I.  too  must  “carry  on.”  May  God  grant 
to  us,  the  women  of  today,  a  vision  as  wide  and  true,  a  love 
as  compelling,  a  faith  as  adequate  for  the  New  Era  just  dawn¬ 
ing,  as  were  the  vision,  the  love  and  the  faith  of  our  mothers 
for  the  work  they  began  fifty  years  ago ! 

40 


: 

; 


The  Annual  Report 
®  ®  £q  y  1918  ®  ® 


May  be  obtained  for  postage 
upon  application  to 
MISS  A.  E.  NOURSE 
19  South  La  Salle  Street 
CHICAGO 
Room  1315 


